Re: st: RE: substringing long, varying length text variables into individual variables

[Harriet Baker <harriet.baker@duke.edu>]

why wouldn't you just split the case?
split stringvar, p ("I")

http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/splitstr.html


On Apr 2, 2008, at 5:57 PM, Raymond Guiteras wrote:

> Shouldn't -- insheet using whatever.whatever, delimit("|") -- do the  
> trick?
> Or am I missing something?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Todd Wagner
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 4:48 PM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> 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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