Apologies for not correcting the subject header in the previous post, I feel so stupid :-)
> > I am trying to take the first two characters of a string variable
> > using substr command as below:
> >
> > name2 = substr(name,1,2)
> >
> > However I get an error message of " type mismatch". Any idea about
> > how I can handle this? Thanks
> >
> Firstly a change in subject title would be more useful for recipients
> as the subject title is informative as to the contents of the mail,
> and in this case your question has nothing to do with handling dates
> (See point 2 under section 2.2 of the statlist FAQ, links for which
> appear at the end of every Statalist post).
>
> I'm guessing your trying to create a new variable which is the first
> two characters of the variable name, in which case you will be using
> the -generate- command. When generating string variables (I'm
> assuming the first two characters of the name variable are in fact
> strings), you need to explicity declare your new variable (name2) as
> being string, so....
>
> . gen str2 name2 = substr(name,1,2)
>
> ...should work. If you know that all of the first two characters are
> numbers and you would like name2 to be a number (unlikely from your
> comments), then the following would work....
>
> . gen name2 = real(substr(name, 1,2)
>
> Hope that helps
>
> Neil
> Neil Shephard
> Genetics Statistician
> ARC Epidemiology Unit, University of Manchester
> [email protected]
> [email protected]
>
> "Mistrust a man who takes games too seriously - it means
> he doesn't take life seriously enough" - Montaigne
>
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Neil Shephard
Genetics Statistician
ARC Epidemiology Unit, University of Manchester
[email protected]
[email protected]
"Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it
were so it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's
logic" - Tweedledee (Alice Through the Looking Glass)
*
* For searches and help try:
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* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
