st: RE: last variable in the dataset

[Mauro Mastrogiacomo <M.Mastrogiacomo@cpb.nl>]

Ricardo, if the dataset is not too large you can use 
des, varlist
local myvars=r(varlist)
dis "`myvars'"
This produces a macro with all variables names. You can then extract the last one.
However if there are too many variables this trick will not work. 
Last Monday Nick posted a different solution to a similar problem (comparing datasets), you might want to have a look at that (unfortunately I don't remember his answer entirely). 
One other option is to use the command order and decide yourself which is the last variable, so that you don't need to find that out.
Hope this helps a little.
Mauro

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Ricardo Ovaldia
Sent: zaterdag 13 augustus 2011 17:07
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: st: last variable in the dataset

Hello,

I am writing an -ado- program that merges several datasets with different variables. I need to know the name of the last variable after the merge.
Is there a way to get the name of the last variable or refer to the last variable in the dataset?

Thank you,
Ricardo

Ricardo Ovaldia, MS
Statistician 
Oklahoma City, OK


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