Re: st: change case of variable names

[Gary Longton <glongton@fhcrc.org>]

Lachenbruch, Peter wrote:

> I have a data set with about 600 variables and all are in upper case.  
> Is there a simple way to make the case lower?
>
> I played with ren ARM lower("ARM") that didn't work.  I suspect I'm 
> missing something very obvious.  What I'd eventually like to do is 
> something like
>
> foreach v of varlist A-Z{
>
> ren `v' lower(`v')
>
> }
>
> but that won't work.
This looks like the right idea to me - one minor problem is that rename won't 
take an expression for the second argument, though you can get around this with 
the expression expansion operator  `=exp'.  Also, within the string function, 
lower(), enclose `v' in double quotes so that lower() is evaluating the variable 
name and not the variable itself.

foreach v of varlist _all {
    rename `v' `=lower("`v'")'
}

- Gary


*
*   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/