In your example, isn't the number of semicolons: 2, 2, 0, 0 ?
Or, do you mean something like this?
forv i = 1/4 {
qui gen gr`i' = .
}
levelsof id, local(levels)
foreach l of loca levels {
local i = 1
foreach v of varlist grp* {
qui split `v' if id == `l', p(;) gen(_split)
qui replace gr`i' = `=r(nvars)' if id == `l'
drop _split*
local ++i
}
}
For example:
. l, noobs
+----------------------------------------------+
| id grp1 grp2 grp3 grp4 |
|----------------------------------------------|
| 1 2;3;4 10;99;2 01 11;2;25;2;3 |
| 2 2;3 10;99;2;44 01 11;2;25;2 |
+----------------------------------------------+
. forv i = 1/4 {
2. qui gen gr`i' = .
3. }
. levelsof id, local(levels)
1 2
. foreach l of loca levels {
2. local i = 1
3. foreach v of varlist grp* {
4. qui split `v' if id == `l', p(;) gen(_split)
5. qui replace gr`i' = `=r(nvars)' if id == `l'
6. drop _split*
7. local ++i
8. }
9. }
. l,noobs
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| id grp1 grp2 grp3 grp4 gr1 gr2 gr3 gr4 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 2;3;4 10;99;2 01 11;2;25;2;3 3 3 1 5 |
| 2 2;3 10;99;2;44 01 11;2;25;2 2 4 1 4 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Hope this helps,
Scott
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:owner-
> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Alexander Nervedi
> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 7:04 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: st: strings hnadling
>
> Hi List users,
>
> I have data which has been entered awkwardly.
>
> Instead of taking each a seperate variable for each item - all items of a
> category are entered together in a variable.
>
> ID Grp1 Grp2 Grp3 Grp4
> 001 2;3;4 10;99;2 01 11,2,25,2,3
>
>
> I'd like to convert this to a dataset that looks like
>
> ID Grp1 Grp2 Grp3 Grp4
> 001 3 3 1 5
>
> i.e. the count of the number of semi-colons within each variable. I am
> sure
> there is a neat way of doing this but I am missing it. So i thought i'd
> write in and ask for u r help.
>
> thanks
>
> Alnerdy
>
*
* 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/
