I didn't read the question carefully enough.
What is asked for is something like
egen N = sieve(strvar), char(0123456789)
egen S = sieve(strvar), keep(a)
gen catvar = 2
replace catvar = 1 if N == strvar
replace catvar = 3 if S == strvar
Nick
[email protected]
Nick Cox
> A loose test of whether a string variable has only
> numbers is that -real(strvar)- is not missing,
> always remembering the possibility of missing
> values.
>
> real("")
>
> and
>
> real(".")
>
> both return numeric missing.
>
> In the -egenmore- package on SSC there is
> a function -sieve()- which may help here.
>
> sieve(strvar) , { keep(classes) | char(chars) | omit(chars) }
> selects characters from strvar according to a specified criterion
> and generates a new string variable containing only those characters.
> This may be done in three ways. First, characters are classified using
> the keywords alphabetic (any of a-z or A-Z), numeric (any of 0-9),
> space or other. keep() specifies one or more of those classes:
> keywords may be abbreviated by as little as one letter. Thus
> keep(a n)
> selects alphabetic and numeric characters and omits spaces and other
> characters. Note that keywords must be separated by spaces.
> Alternatively,
> char() specifies each character to be selected or omit()
> specifies each
> character to be omitted. Thus char(0123456789.) selects numeric
> characters and the stop (presumably as decimal point); omit("
> ") strips
> spaces and omit(`"""') strips double quotes. (Stata 7 required.)
>
> So you could look at a string variable like this.
>
> egen N = sieve(strvar), keep(n)
> capture assert N == strvar
> if _rc {
> // characters present
> egen S = sieve(strvar), keep(a)
> capture assert S == strvar
> if _rc {
> // must be a mixture
> <code for this case>
> }
> else {
> // must be all string
> <code for this case>
> }
> else {
> // must be all numeric
> <code for this case>
> }
> drop N S
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
>
> TEWODAJ MOGUES
>
> > I looked through the string functions to try to find out
> > which variable
> > values of a string variable has letters plus numbers, only
> > letters, and
> > only numbers, but didn't come up with anything. E.g.
> suppose i wanted
> > to create a categorical variable that takes on 1 when stringvar has
> > only numbers, 2 if a mix of numbers and letter, and 3 if
> only letters:
> >
> > stringvar catvar
> > 1 1
> > 12 1
> > id14 2
> > run 3
> > 5K 2
> > SPRINT 3
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