Syntax error when using count in loop - count

Question

I am trying to run a loop where I count the total in each file under the variable _merge, and then count certain outcomes of _merge, such as _merge=1 and so on. I then want to calculate percentages by dividing each instance of _merge by the total under _merge.
Below is my code:
/*define local list*/
local ward_names B C D E FN FS GS HE
/*loop for each dbase*/
foreach file of local ward_names {
use "../../../cleaning/sra/output/`file'_ward_CTS_Merged.dta", clear
count if _merge
local ward_count=r(N)
count if _merge==1
local count_master=r(N)
count if _merge==2
local count_using=r(N)
count if _merge==3
local count_match=r(N)
clear
set obs 1
g ward_count='ward_count'
g count_master=`count_master'
g count_using=`count_using'
g count_match=`count_match'
g ward= "`file'"
save "../temp/`file'_collapsed_diagnostics.dta", replace
clear
The code was running fine until I tried to add the total count for each ward file:
g ward_count='ward_count'
'ward_count' invalid name
Is this a syntax error or something more severe?

Answer 1

You need to use ` instead of ' when you refer to a local macro:
generate ward_count = `ward_count'
EDIT:
As per #NickCox's recommendation you can improve your code by using the tabulate command with its matcell() option to get the counts all at once:
tabulate _merge, matcell(A)
_merge | Freq. Percent Cum.
------------------------+-----------------------------------
master only (1) | 1 16.67 16.67
matched (3) | 5 83.33 100.00
------------------------+-----------------------------------
Total | 6 100.00
matrix list A
A[2,1]
c1
r1 1
r2 5
So you could then do the following:
generate count_master = A[1,1]
generate count_match = A[2,1]