Re: st: identifying variables

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

Very useful to know, Nick. Just to confirm, in general stata goes
further into the command only if the _if_ condition returns 1. There
is no need for parenthesis or a separate line for -local-. Thanks for
this detail.
Cheers
Abhimanyu


On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 11:33 AM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> Note also that a solution from first principles is also possible:
>
> foreach v of var * {
>        capture if strpos(`v'[1], "real") local vars `vars' `v'
> }
>
> di "`vars'"
>
> You need the -capture- unless all the variables are string.
>
> Nick
>
> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 8:57 AM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>> You have provided yet another example of a problem in which -strpos()-
>> offers a simple alternative to -regexm()-.
>>
>> That aside, your syntax is looking for the string "real" in the
>> _variable names_ themselves, for which
>>
>> . findname *real*
>>
>> would be a more obvious syntax, and indeed -describe *real*- would
>> work fine. Stata has a similar distinction in all string and regular
>> expression functions between looking in a string variable strvar and
>> looking in a variable name "varname".
>>
>> . l in 1
>>
>>     +-------------------------------------------+
>>     |     foo       bar     bazz    y         x |
>>     |-------------------------------------------|
>>  1. | reality   surreal   unreal   42   3.14159 |
>>     +-------------------------------------------+
>>
>> . findname in 1, all(strpos(@, "real"))
>> foo   bar   bazz
>>
>> . findname in 1, all(regexm(@, "[real]"))
>> foo   bar   bazz
>>
>> . findname in 1, all(regexm(@, "real"))
>> foo   bar   bazz
>>
>> @ is the default generic varname. -placeholder()- lets you specify an
>> alternative. You only need to specify "@" for searching the variable
>> names, but as above there are easier ways to do that.
>>
>> Nick
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 3:50 AM, Abhimanyu Arora
>> <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I need to identify the variables for which the first observation
>>> contains the string "real".
>>> I used Nick Cox's -findname- from the SSC (updated 27 February 2012)
>>> in the following command.
>>>
>>> findname var1-var56 in 1,all(regexm("@","real+")) loc (varnames)
>>>
>>> But since -return list- comes up empty, something is amiss, perhaps in
>>> the use of the regular expression. May I also request some clarity in
>>> understanding of the role played by a "placeholder" in -findname-? As
>>> I see it, a generally character designated as a "placeholder" is
>>> supposed to take on supplied values—string or numerals. Or in other
>>> words, how would stata read the "@" in the above command?
>>>
>
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