I would never recommend alteration of the original data file. I would
always recommend that you work on a copy. With that proviso, this route
is more complicated than using -filefilter-.
Nick
[email protected]
Joseph Coveney
Ada Ma wrote:
Thanks a lot to both for the solutions you have suggested. I think
the -filefilter- command will be the easiest to implement given that
I'm on a Windoze system!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Your best bet might be something along the line of the approach
illustrated
below. It can import the pipe-delimited text file that you show all
within
Stata's main dataset area using only -infix- and -split-, i.e., without
resorting to Unix-like commands, such as prior alteration of the
external
text data file using -filefilter-.
For the illustration, I've created a text file containing the
pipe-delimited, quotation-mark-containing dataset that you showed. I've
named it 1.prn, and it's on Stata's working directory on my machine.
The
do-file is shown below first, and the Results window play-by-play is
shown beneath it.
Joseph Coveney
clear *
set more off
type 1.prn
infix str a 1-244 using 1.prn
list, noobs
split a, generate(a_) parse("|")
drop a
list, noobs
foreach var of varlist _all {
local newname = `var'[1]
rename `var' `newname'
}
drop in 1
list, noobs
exit
-------------------
. clear *
. set more off
. type 1.prn
epikey|hrg|code1|code2|code3
1|A0123|D100|V123|K166
2|A0125|D200|"|G122
3|B0101|D300|"|C333
4|B0122|D400|E002|V777
. infix str a 1-244 using 1.prn
(5 observations read)
. list, noobs
+------------------------------+
| a |
|------------------------------|
| epikey|hrg|code1|code2|code3 |
| 1|A0123|D100|V123|K166 |
| 2|A0125|D200|"|G122 |
| 3|B0101|D300|"|C333 |
| 4|B0122|D400|E002|V777 |
+------------------------------+
. split a, generate(a_) parse("|")
variables created as string:
a_1 a_2 a_3 a_4 a_5
. drop a
. list, noobs
+----------------------------------------+
| a_1 a_2 a_3 a_4 a_5 |
|----------------------------------------|
| epikey hrg code1 code2 code3 |
| 1 A0123 D100 V123 K166 |
| 2 A0125 D200 " G122 |
| 3 B0101 D300 " C333 |
| 4 B0122 D400 E002 V777 |
+----------------------------------------+
. foreach var of varlist _all {
2. local newname = `var'[1]
3. rename `var' `newname'
4. }
. drop in 1
(1 observation deleted)
. list, noobs
+----------------------------------------+
| epikey hrg code1 code2 code3 |
|----------------------------------------|
| 1 A0123 D100 V123 K166 |
| 2 A0125 D200 " G122 |
| 3 B0101 D300 " C333 |
| 4 B0122 D400 E002 V777 |
+----------------------------------------+
. exit
end of do-file
*
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