There is a command dedicated to this
purpose, -renpfix-.
But your attempt to do it from first
principles is almost there. The most
crucial detail is the lack of an
equals sign to force evaluation.
foreach var of varlist data* {
local newname = substr(`var', 5, .)
rename `var' `newname'
}
Another way to do it is
foreach var of varlist data* {
local newname : subinstr local var "data" ""
rename `var' `newname'
}
In general, variable names can be manipulated
using macros and/or string functions, just like other text.
In fact, a large fraction of Stata depends on precisely that.
Nick
[email protected]
Martin Rio
> I have a dataset with several variables named:
> datax1 datax2 datay1 datapt datafj
>
> and I'd like to remove the 4 first characters of each to get variables
> with names:
> x1 x2 y1 pt fj
>
> I tried:
>
> foreach var of varlist data* {
> local newname substr(`var', 4, length(`var')-2)
> rename `var' `newname'
> }
>
> It seems that the standard string functions may not apply to
> macros. Any
> ideas on how to do this? Are there string functions specific
> to macros? I
> was looking at the documentation for macro extended functions
> but did not
> find something that would seem to do it.
*
* 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/
