thanks a lot for the prompt answer. the tab command was there b/c i wanted
to check if the variables look fine after the changes. i deleted from the
command line in my post which might have caused confusion.
i have been using ; delimiter because i want to see the entire program
without having to scroll horizontally, in the case of long lists or long for
commands. i sort of got used to it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 2:42 PM
Subject: st: RE: how to eliminate characters from string variables
> Radu Ban wrote
> >
> > I have a string variable that has observation of the type
> > C1.A
> > C1.B
> > C1 C
> > C1D
> > C1e
> >
> > For my purposes C1.A, C1 A, C1A, and C1a are the same so I
> > would like to
> > eliminate all dots "." and spaces " " and lower cases from
> > my observations.
> > I noticed the subinstr, and upper, command which looks like
> > 'my friends' but
> > when I try:
> >
> > for var r*fcode b*fcode: replace X = upper(X)\
> >
> > replace X = subinstr(X,".","",1)\
> >
> > replace X = subinstr(X," ","",1); (note that
> > delimiter is ;)
> >
> > I get the command to run over the first variable but
> > something goes wrong
> > with the third command:
> >
> > -> replace r1fcode = upper(r1fcode)
> > (3 real changes made)
> >
> > -> replace r1fcode = subinstr(r1fcode,".","",1)
> > (61 real changes made)
> >
> > -> replace r1fcode = subinstr(r1fcode," `","' `",1)\ tab r1fcode"'
> > Unknown function ()
> > r(133);
> >
> > For some reason, Stata puts in a ` between the " " in the
> > third command. Can
> > anyone point out my mistake here.
>
> (What's that extra -tab- stuff?)
>
> I think in essence you've overloaded -for-'s little brain
> and it's confused.
>
> I am not sure what it is, but there are at least two
> possibilities.
>
> 1. Quoted strings with only spaces can be problematic.
> -for- tries to take your quoted strings and handle
> them carefully using compound double quotes `" "'
> but it doesn't always succeed.
>
> 2. The use of the delimiter ; could be problematic.
> My guess is that there is a conflict and that
> -for- is misinterpreting the semi-colon.
>
> Overloading -for- and getting into a mess has been
> a very frequent reason for postings to this list
> over the years. -for- has been a handy Swiss army
> knife, for me too, but it's not robust enough to be able to cope
> with all but relatively simple problems, and now
> there are better tools.
>
> The very often repeated advice, as in 90% of -for-
> problems I see, is use -foreach- and/or -forvalues-.
>
> I coded up a simpler version of your -for-
> code and (1) despite tweaking it in various ways,
> (2) running traces, and (3) having some knowledge of
> how -for- works, I ran into the same brick
> wall as you did, or similar ones.
>
> I coded up this with -foreach- and it
> worked first time:
>
> foreach v of var code
> replace `v' = upper(`v')
> replace `v' = subinstr(`v',".","",1)
> replace `v' = subinstr(`v'," ","",1)
> }
>
> P.S. Avoid semi-colons as delimiters, unless
> you are a C programmer or Roger Newson.
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>
>
*
* For searches and help try:
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