st: Data manipulation question

[steinar.fossedal@skandiabanken.no]

Dear listers.

 

I have discovered errors in my dataset, and it seems some of my data are recorded in the wrong variable. The variable the data should have been recorded as, is left missing. A few examples: (Missing values marked as "")

 

Record              CarManufacturer            CarModel                      CarEngine

1                      Ford                              Mustang                        .

2                      Chevrolet                       Starcraft                        .

3                      Ford                              Galaxy                          .

4                      Honda                           Civic                             1.4 I S

5                      Toyota                          Avensis                         .

6                      ""                                  Ford Excursion              .

7                      ""                                  BMW 520 I Touring        520 I

8                      ""                                  318                               BMW

9                      BMW                            320 I                             320 I

10                     Alfra Romeo                  Spider                           .

11                     ""                                  Alfa Romeo                   .

 

 

What I wish to do is to search for an expression in each record that can also be observed as a distinct value in CarManufacturer, and then replace it into CarManufacturer. I have failed in both creating tests across records and on an attempt to fetch the unique values of CarManufacturer into an object which I then can perform checks against. But then again, I'm no seasoned veteran in this game.

Is there any way of pulling this off in Stata?

 

Sincerely yours,

Steinar Fossedal