Re: st: Constructe a string variable

["Oleksandr Talavera, BC" <talaveol@bc.edu>]

There is also another solution
*  N is number of digits in your format, 3 in your case
scalar N=3
g str`N' X1= 
substr(string(10^(N-length(string(X)))),2,N-length(string(X)))+string(X)
*----------

I tried for  N=7
    +--------------+
    |  X        X1 |
    |--------------|
 1. |  2   0000002 |
 2. | 45   0000045 |
 3. | 56   0000056 |
 4. |  6   0000006 |
    +--------------+

Best,
Sasha

jtsheu@bu.edu wrote:


> Dear Listers:
>
> Suppose I have a string variable with 3 position on each observations.
> Each of these observations contains some values range from 1-999.
> i.e.:
>       X
> obs1   1
> obs2   12
> obs3   123
> (though all entries are numerical, but variable X is of string format)
>
> My purpose is to reconstruct this variable to be the following formate:
>       X
> obs1   001
> obs2   023
> obs3   345
>
> i.e. I want to replace the left postition for each observation with "0" if 
> nothing here.
>
> I have tried the following method:
>
> gen str1 X1=substr(X, 1, 1)
> gen str2 X2=substr(X, 2, 1)
> gen str3 X3=substr(X, 3, 1)
>
> my idea is that if I can divide original variable(X) into 3 pieces, and then I 
> can replace the missing( or " ") into 0, and then re-combine the variable.
>
> However, in the above data example.
> the X1 (=substr(X,1,1) is always equal to: 
> obs1 1
> obs2 2
> obs2 3
>
> (the corerct one should be:
> obs1  
> obs2  
> obs2 3
>
> That means, the function of -string- or -substr- in Stata will always return 
> the first values of that observations no matter its' real position.
> I am just wondering whether anyone knows an easier function or command to deal 
> with that?
>
>
> *
> *   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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