I tried the syntax on the computer of my colleague and it works. No
idea why it is not working on my own. I just uninstalled Stata and
reinstall it. It works. Thanks all. Never thought this might be a
solution....
On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Joseph Coveney <[email protected]> wrote:
> Xiangping Jia wrote:
>
> I am working on a second-hand data in Excel format. Most of the
> variables are numeric while some are strings. For those numeric
> variables, some cases were inputted as strings that includes some
> texts for explaining the data when conducting the survey . While I
> need numeric information, I want to check those text information one
> by one and to look up in details. Dirty work but necessary.
>
> Here is the way I did.
> 1) In Excel, I add one new obs as the first obs
>
> id var1 var2 var3
> abc abc abc
> 1 23 111 119
> 2 5 91 89
> 3 1dog 2cat 4dog
>
> 2) Infile the excel data into Stata (for just copy them into Stata).
> Since all variables are identified as strings, no information lost.
>
> 3) In Stata,
> verson 10
> drop if id==. //drop the newly added 1st obs
> local xlist var1 var2 var3
> foreach v of local xlist {
> destring `v', gen(j`v') force //generate a numeric variable by
> dropping those text information
> list id `v' j`v' if `v'~="" & j`v'==. // check those text cases
> }
>
> PROBLEM. The syntax works well; the variables are destringed. But the
> annoy thing is that the results of the last line is NOT displayed.
> But when I type variables one by one, for example "list id var1 jvar1
> if var1~=""&jvar1==.", the text cases are displayed
> +-------------------+
> | id var1 jvar1 |
> |-------------------|
> 3. | 3 dot . |
> +-------------------+
>
> Since there are a great number of variables, no way to do it one by
> one. Could someone tell me what's wrong with the syntax? Why the last
> line does not perform to show the text cases?
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The code that you show works for me: all of the last line's string variables are displayed (see results below).
>
> Joseph Coveney
>
>
> . clear *
>
> . set more off
>
> . input byte id str4 var1 str4 var2 str4 var3
>
> id var1 var2 var3
> 1. . "abc" "abc" "abc"
> 2. 1 "23" "111" "119"
> 3. 2 "5" "91" "89"
> 4. 3 "1dog" "2cat" "4dog"
> 5. end
>
> . list, noobs
>
> +-------------------------+
> | id var1 var2 var3 |
> |-------------------------|
> | . abc abc abc |
> | 1 23 111 119 |
> | 2 5 91 89 |
> | 3 1dog 2cat 4dog |
> +-------------------------+
>
> . // Xiangping Jia's code copied from the Statalist post:
> . // verson 10
> . drop if id==. //drop the newly added 1st obs
> (1 observation deleted)
>
> . local xlist var1 var2 var3
>
> . foreach v of local xlist {
> 2. destring `v', gen(j`v') force //generate a numeric variable by
> 3. // dropping those text information
> . list id `v' j`v' if `v'~="" & j`v'==. // check those text cases
> 4. }
> var1 contains nonnumeric characters; jvar1 generated as byte
> (1 missing value generated)
>
> +-------------------+
> | id var1 jvar1 |
> |-------------------|
> 3. | 3 1dog . |
> +-------------------+
> var2 contains nonnumeric characters; jvar2 generated as int
> (1 missing value generated)
>
> +-------------------+
> | id var2 jvar2 |
> |-------------------|
> 3. | 3 2cat . |
> +-------------------+
> var3 contains nonnumeric characters; jvar3 generated as int
> (1 missing value generated)
>
> +-------------------+
> | id var3 jvar3 |
> |-------------------|
> 3. | 3 4dog . |
> +-------------------+
>
> . exit
>
> end of do-file
>
>
> .
>
>
>
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>
--
Xiangping Jia
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
