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RE: st: creating a text file with a specific format
From 
 
Nick Cox <[email protected]> 
To 
 
"'[email protected]'" <[email protected]> 
Subject 
 
RE: st: creating a text file with a specific format 
Date 
 
Mon, 6 Feb 2012 18:50:17 +0000 
By social security numbers I guess you mean as used in the United States, which I understand to mean up to 9 numeric digits. 
-tostring- is perfectly capable of insisting on leading zeros for those and other numbers. 
. gen long SSN = 87654321
. l SSN in 1
     +----------+
     |      SSN |
     |----------|
  1. | 87654321 |
     +----------+
. tostring SSN, gen(mySSN) format(%09.0f)
mySSC generated as str9
. l *SSN in 1
     +----------------------+
     |      SSN       mySSN |
     |----------------------|
  1. | 87654321   087654321 |
     +----------------------+
You just need to specify an appropriate format. 
Nick 
[email protected] 
Michael Eisenberg
Thanks Nick.  It was a general question.
One problem with converting to a string that I have is that when I
attempt to convert a social security number or any other numbers into
a string, it truncates any leading zero's.
tostring ssn, gen(ssnstr)
On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 8:38 AM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
> Is this a general question, or a specific question about Austin Nichols' -outfixt-?
>
> In general: Convert to string first.
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
>
> Michael Eisenberg
>
> Thanks so much.
>
> Is there a way to replace missing values with no characters rather than a "." ?
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 7:05 AM, Austin Nichols <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Michael Eisenberg <[email protected]>:
>> replace lastname=substr(lastname,1,20)
>> *etc, then:
>> ssc install outfixt
>>
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