Hi Ainsley,
Welcome to statalist. The solution to your problem is -tostring ed, format(%05.0f) replace- The
key is in the somewhat cryptic format part: the first 0 in %05.0f means "add leading zeros", the 5
means "number is shown with 5 digits" the second 0 means "zero digits behind the decimal point"
and the f means "fixed format". See -whelp format- for more information.
*-----begin example------
input x
1
12
123
1234
12345
end
tostring x, format(%05.0f) replace
list
*------end example--------
HTH,
Maarten
--- ainsley charles <[email protected]> wrote:
> How do I add leading zeros to a string variable
> conditional on its length? My objective is to create a
> unique identifier
<snip>
>
> reg ed
> 10 100
> 11 3200
> 12 16400
>
> Reg is consistently a str2 but ed is not (at most,
> though, it's a str5). I wish my new variable to be a
> str7 of the form "1000100", "1103200", and "1216400"
-----------------------------------------
between 1/2/2006 and 31/3/2006 I will be
visiting the UCLA, during this time the
best way to reach me is by email
Maarten L. Buis
Department of Social Research Methodology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
visiting adress:
Buitenveldertselaan 3 (Metropolitan), room Z214
+31 20 5986715
http://home.fsw.vu.nl/m.buis/
-----------------------------------------
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