Re: st: Renumbering variables in a loop of files

[Florian Seliger <florian.seliger@gmx.de>]

Your first suggestion is excellent. Thank you.


Am 17.12.2010 um 16:24 schrieb Sergiy Radyakin:

> On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 12:15 AM, Florian Seliger
> <florian.seliger@gmx.de> wrote:
>> Dear Statalist,
>> 
>> I have again a question concerning numbering  IDs in a foreach loop.
>> 
>> I have multiple datafiles for that I have specified a foreach loop.
>> Each dataset either contains a variable id_1, id_2, id_3, etc. or only a variable id without a number.
>> 
>> My goal is to assign a number to all IDs in each file. The numbers should  reflect the number of the file, e.g.
>> 
>> file no.                old     variable        --->    new variable
>> 1                       id_1                    id_1
>> 2                       id_2                    id_2
>> 3                       id_3                    id_3
>> 4                       id                              id_4
>> 5                       id_4                    id_5
>> 6                       id_5                    id_6
>> 7                       id                              id_7
>> 8                       id_6                    id_8
>> ...                     ...                             ...     .
>> 
> 
> 
> Florian, if you only have one variable id* per file the following
> should suffice:
> 
> tempvar ID
> rename id `ID'
> rename `ID' id_`j'
> 
> here the second line delegates to Stata to unabbreviate what id is
> (whether it is
> id, id2, or id92) and rename it to some temporary name. Then it is renamed to a
> properly numbered variable, where j is your file index. We need the temporary
> variable to avoid renaming the variable into itself (Stata aborts on
> "rename x x").
> Alternatively, add capture, though then you might be missing other important
> errors.
> 
> 
> 
>> I have specified a command such as the following:
>> 
>> local i=1
>> foreach file ... {
>> 
>> use "`file'", clear
>> 
>> forvalues j=1(1)230  {  //230 is the number of files
>> capture confirm id_`j'
>> 
>> if _rc==0 {
>> sort id_`j'
>>  capture rename id_`j' id_`i'
>>                }
>>                }
>> 
>> else {
>>  sort id
>>  rename id id_`i'
>> }
>> 
>> 
>> local ++i
>> save "`file'", replace
>>                }
>> 
>> ***end command***
>> 
>> With this command, STATA tells me for the first file that id_1 is already defined and stops the loop although I have used a second  "capture" before "rename".
> 
> Command -confirm-, such as :confirm variable id_1
> 
> Example:
> capture confirm variable id_`j'
> if !_rc break, continue
> 
> 
> 
> Best, Sergiy Radyakin
> 
> 
>> Do you have an idea how I have to rewrite the command?
>> 
>> Thank you very much.
>> Best wishes,
>> Florian
>> 
>> 
>> *
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>> 
> 
> *
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*
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