AW: st: Remove numbers from variable name

["Martin Weiss" <martin.weiss1@gmx.de>]

<> 

So, having switched the branches of the (programming) -if-, here is a
sensible solution that puts the question into a -note-. (The maximum length
of -varname-s is 32, the maximum for the -note- ranges from 8,681 to 67,784,
depending on Rasika`s flavour of Stata.) 

On the other hand, given that the -varname-s must have been acceptable when
they found their way into Stata, they must already comply with the 32 limit,
so Rasika should decide what to do. In my view, it amounts to a slight abuse
of -varname-s to fill them with the string of the question, but hey, that is
just me...




*************
clear*
//generate data
gen question5doyouhave=""
gen question6areyou=""
gen question16haveyouever=""

foreach v of var question* { 
	 if regexm("`v'", "^question[1-9][0-9].*") { 
		di in r "if-branch"
		local newname = substr("`v'", 1, 10)
		local notetxt = substr("`v'", 11, .) 
		ren `v' `newname'  
		note `newname': The question was: `notetxt' 
	}
		else if regexm("`v'", "^question[1-9].*") { 
		di in r "else-branch"
		local newname = substr("`v'", 1, 9)
		local notetxt = substr("`v'", 10, .) 
		ren `v' `newname' 
		note `newname': The question was: `notetxt' 
	}
	else di "`v': problematic name" 
}

//inspect the result:
d
note l 
**************



HTH
Martin


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
[mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] Im Auftrag von Martin Weiss
Gesendet: Dienstag, 29. Juni 2010 13:23
An: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Betreff: AW: st: Remove numbers from variable name


<> 

But careful! A "two-digit- question" would comply with the if-branch in
Nick`s solution as well. So I am afraid it would not make it to the
else-branch:

*************
di in r regexm("question16haveyouever", "^question[1-9].*")
*************



HTH
Martin


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
[mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] Im Auftrag von Nick Cox
Gesendet: Dienstag, 29. Juni 2010 12:30
An: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Betreff: RE: st: Remove numbers from variable name

In terms of the other question, regular expressions offer one way to
distinguish one from two digits: 

foreach v of var question* { 
	if regexm("`v'", "^question[1-9].*") { 
		local newname = substr("`v'", 10, .) 
		rename `v' `newname' 
	}
	else if regexm("`v'", "^question[1-9][0-9].*") { 
		local newname = substr("`v'", 11, .) 
		rename `v' `newname' 
	}
	else di "`v': problematic name" 
}

Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 

Martin Weiss

" Does not -subinstr- work for string observation, and not variable
names?"

-subinstr- substitutes parts of strings within strings. Since a variable
name is just a string, I can use it for your purposes:

*************
clear*
gen question5doyouhave=""
gen question6areyou=""

foreach var of varlist _all{
	loc newname = substr(subinstr("`var'","question","",1),2,.)
	rename `var' `newname'
}
*************

For the -varname-s containing two digits, you would have to change the
code
to "),3,.)" at the end of the -local- line...

Rasika Raghavan

Richard,

Thanks. It worked out fine. Can you suggest though a way in which I
don't have to specify the variables? Why I am asking is that, for
single digit questions it would be predrop(10) and for two digit
question numbers, it would be predrop(11). While it was easy in my
case, I can think of situations where this might work out to be
tedious.

Martin,

The "are you" was a typo. But thanks, I had not realized something
like -strtoname- existed.

I did not quite follow "For your substitution, look at -subinstr()-.
Why not put the question in the -var label- or a -note- to the
variable?"

Does not -subinstr- work for string observation, and not variable names?


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