In Stata I would suggest -- subject to the advice at the end --
replace company_name = subinstr(company_name, "ltd.", "ltd", .)
This is literal. You might need also
replace company_name = subinstr(company_name, "Ltd.", "Ltd", .)
and perhaps other variants.
This finds and replaces the substring specified whereever it exists. More
paranoid code would do this
replace company_name = reverse(subinstr(reverse(company_name), ".dtl", "dtl", 1))
and so forth to be sure of trapping only the first such string counting backwards.
See also help for -subinstr()- and more generally for string functions.
However, don't -replace- your variable at all. Use -clonevar- to
create a clone, modify that, and then check to see what you
have done.
Nick
[email protected]
Dalhia Mani
> hi, I have a fairly simple problem for which I am sure STATA has an
> easy solution but I can't seem to find it. I am hoping you can help
> me.
>
> Here is what I need to do:
> I have a string variable called company_name which has names like
> "microsoft ltd."
> What I need to do somehow remove the dot at the end of the "ltd." in
> all cases where a dot appears at the end of the ltd. The equivalent
> in excel is a global find-replace. I tried "recode" but that seems to
> work only for numeric variables.
>
> How do I do this?
>
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