Re: st: AW: RE: renaming variables

[Abhimanyu Arora <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com>]

I see. Well, a simple thanks would be an understatement to you both
for your detailed solutions. I am sorry my help file was not updated
(didn't realize that Prof. Cox was a coauthor for the -renvars-
program).
Best regards
Abhimanyu

On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 2:35 PM, Martin Weiss <martin.weiss1@gmx.de> wrote:
>
> <>
>
> " His code can be very slightly simplified:"
>
>
>
>
> So in case you did not know where Nick lives/works, it is the European
> country where "understatement" is more popular than anywhere else...
>
> -ren `var' year`start'- is of course a substantial improvement on my code,
> although pedagogically mine may make a more lasting impact on readers. If
> you want an even shorter version still, throw out -set obs 1- as well: to
> show changes in variable names, we do not need actual data, do we?
>
>
>
>
> HTH
> Martin
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] Im Auftrag von Nick Cox
> Gesendet: Freitag, 21. Mai 2010 14:26
> An: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Betreff: st: RE: renaming variables
>
> -renvars- was written by Jeroen Weesie and myself. Good practice as
> often requested on the list is to say where user-written stuff comes
> from, which here is the Stata Journal site.
>
> As you say, your code was incorrect.
>
> 1. -postsub()- is an option of -renvars- and therefore must follow a
> comma.
>
> 2. -postsub()- does not use comma as separator but a space.
>
> 3. Your code would not change "var" to "year".
>
> 4. You need at most one loop simultaneously over 53(3)107 and 1990/2008
> (with 19 iterations) but your two nested loops would produce 19 * 19
> iterations.
>
> In principle, you seem to be trying to call -renvars- once for each
> renaming. If you are going to do that you might as well use -rename-.
>
> -renvars- can be used to solve your problem -- in one line -- but I
> think the solution is too messy to be interesting. After all, you want
> to change the prefix systematically and the postfix from an
> idiosyncratic number to a more systematic number, all at once, and no
> one-line solution for that could look nice.
>
> Any way, this is a solution:
>
> renvars var*, map("year" + string(1989 + (real(substr("@",4,.)) - 50) /
> 3))
>
> Here all the looping is inside -renvars-.
>
> Even as an author of -renvars- I would much prefer going back to first
> principles and very much agree with Martin Weiss's strategy.
>
> His code can be very slightly simplified:
>
> clear
> set obs 1
>
> forv i=53(3)107{
>        gen var`i'=1
> }
>
> //-rename-
> loc start 1990
>
> foreach var of varlist var*{
>        ren `var' year`start'
>        loc ++start
> }
>
> Nick
> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
>
> Abhimanyu Arora
>
> I would like to rename my variables var53....var108 such that var53,
> var56, var59 ......var107 etc...are renamed as year1990,
> year1991......year2008 repectively. I tried to use renvars(by Jeroen
> Weesie) and a forvalues loop, but am not able to succeed.
> Is there any other way?
>
> PS-my incorrect way follows
>
>
> forvalues j =53(3)107{
> forvalues i =1990/2008{
> renvars postsub(`i',`j')    /*the arguments should be strings, I guess,
> though*/
> }
> }
>
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