Re: st: removing leading blanks

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

Yes, I had to ultimately give up after spending hours thinking about
the anomalous (buggy) nature of -ltrim- (even -charlist- did not pick
out a non-blank character). -substr- solved the problem luckily

Apparently there was a similar situation 5 years ago on the list
http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2006-09/msg00269.html (but I am
sure the spaces were leading in my case but just to be sure I tried
both rtrim & trim with no changes)


Best regards
Abhimanyu



On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 2:54 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> OK, but in that case why did -ltrim()- fail to do what you wanted,
> which is where you started?
>
> Nick
>
> On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Abhimanyu Arora
> <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks Nick, but doesn't it imply that the blanks are actually blanks
>> and not any other string characters?
>>
>> But anyway, I was able to solve the issue by using
>> replace var1=substr(var1,5,.)
>>
>> Wish you and all members of the statalist a very happy new year!
>>
>> Best regards
>> Abhimanyu
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 7:56 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I find the elements of your report difficult to reconcile. You imply
>>> that -charlist- gives no output, which is not the case.
>>>
>>> Nick
>>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Abhimanyu Arora
>>> <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi Nick
>>>> Thanks for the tip.
>>>> I followed your suggestions but somehow still am unable to get things right.
>>>> Here are the steps I followed together with the displayed output.
>>>> Charlist rules out non-blank spaces, but-subinstr- with char(9) or "
>>>> ", both do not yield the desired outcome.
>>>>
>>>> . count
>>>>   10
>>>>
>>>> . gen problem=substr(var1,1,4)
>>>>
>>>> . charlist problem
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> . replace var1 = subinstr(var1, char(9), "", .)
>>>> (0 real changes made)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Now,
>>>>
>>>> . replace var1 = subinstr(var1, " ", "",. )
>>>> (10 real changes made)
>>>>
>>>> . gen problem2=substr(var1,1,3) *It seems the 10 changes are basically
>>>> left trimming by 1 leading blank space*
>>>>
>>>> . charlist problem2
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> . replace var1 = subinstr(var1, " ", "",. ) *Similar recursive steps
>>>> as above does not seem to work out*
>>>> (0 real changes made)
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Abhimanyu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 5:34 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> What you describe as blanks may be some other character(s).
>>>>>
>>>>> -charlist- (SSC) is a utility which may help.
>>>>>
>>>>> gen problem = substr(var1, 1, 4)
>>>>>
>>>>> charlist problem
>>>>>
>>>>> After finding out which characters are present, use code such as
>>>>>
>>>>> replace var1 = subinstr(var1, char(9), "", .)
>>>>>
>>>>> where 9 is a placeholder for the argument you need. (char(9) is a tab,
>>>>> and the characters might just be a tab.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Nick
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Abhimanyu Arora
>>>>> <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> All values of a string variable, var1, have 4 blank spaces in the beginning.
>>>>>> However, when I type in the command
>>>>>> -replace var1=ltrim(var1)- ,
>>>>>>  the output displays "0 real changes made" (and needless to say,
>>>>>> things remain as they were to start with)
>>>>>> Would be really great if this puzzling issue is sorted out.
>>>>>
>
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