Shouldn't -- insheet using whatever.whatever, delimit("|") -- do the trick?
Or am I missing something?
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Todd Wagner
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 4:48 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: st: substringing long, varying length text variables into
individual variables
Hi,
I have data from a publicly available database
(clinicaltrials.gov). This database has a number of text variables
that I want to break into individual variables and I could use some help.
For example, one of the variables is called study designs. Here are
some data from the study designs variable
Treatment|Randomized|Double-Blind|Placebo Control|Parallel
Assignment|Safety/Efficacy Study
Prevention|Randomized|Open Label|Active Control|Parallel
Assignment|Bio-equivalence Study
Prevention|Randomized|Double Blind (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator,
Outcomes Assessor)|Crossover Assignment
Randomized|Single Blind|Active Control|Parallel Assignment
Natural History|Cross-Sectional|Case Control|Prospective Study
Treatment|Randomized|Open Label|Active Control|Parallel
Assignment|Efficacy Study
Treatment|Randomized|Double-Blind|Placebo Control|Single Group
Assignment|Safety/Efficacy Study
Treatment|Randomized|Open Label|Placebo Control|Parallel
Assignment|Safety/Efficacy Study
Treatment|Randomized|Double-Blind|Active Control|Parallel
Assignment|Safety/Efficacy Study
Prevention|Randomized|Double-Blind|Placebo Control|Parallel
Assignment|Safety/Efficacy Study
Treatment|Randomized|Single Blind (Investigator)|Placebo
Control|Parallel Assignment
Treatment|Randomized|Open Label|Active Control|Parallel
Assignment|Efficacy Study
What I want to do is parse this text using the "|" into individual variables
So the first case would be
des1 des2 des3 des4 des5
des6
Treatment Randomized Double-Blind Placebo Control
Parallel
Assignment Safety/Efficacy Study
I can think of a brute force way where I save this variable and my id
variable, change | to a comma, output as text, read the text into
stata as a comma separated file, and then merge it back into my
data. Sounds silly, but perhaps it is the easiest. Any other ideas?
Thanks,
Todd
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