RE: st: rename

["David Radwin" <dradwin@mprinc.com>]

Sorry, this line is superfluous though harmless: 

> 	local ++j

David

--
David Radwin
Senior Research Associate
MPR Associates, Inc.
2150 Shattuck Ave., Suite 800
Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: 510-849-4942
Fax: 510-849-0794

www.mprinc.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Radwin [mailto:dradwin@mprinc.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 2:05 PM
> To: 'statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu'
> Subject: RE: st: rename
> 
> 
> Maybe you could run it through a loop where the first word of the first
> macro gets changed to the first word of the second macro, etc.? Like
this:
> 
> * Make fake dataset
> set more off
> clear
> set obs 1
> forvalues i = 1/1000 {
> 	gen oldvar`i' = .
> 	}
> 
> * Make list of new variable names
> forvalues i = 1/1000 {
> 	local newnames `newnames' newvar`i'
> 	}
> 
> * Change all variable names
> local j = 1
> unab original : oldvar*
> forvalues j = 1/1000 {
> 	local oldname : word `j' of `original'
> 	local newname : word `j' of `newnames'
> 	rename `oldname' `newname'
> 	local ++j
> 	}
> 
> David
> --
> David Radwin
> Senior Research Associate
> MPR Associates, Inc.
> 2150 Shattuck Ave., Suite 800
> Berkeley, CA 94704
> Phone: 510-849-4942
> Fax: 510-849-0794
> 
> www.mprinc.com
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-
> > statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Airey, David C
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 1:30 PM
> > To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> > Subject: Re: st: rename
> >
> > .
> >
> > If I had 1000 variables and wanted to rename them to a
> > list of another 1000 names, what is the best way to do this?
> > There are no stubs, so I cannot use the rename group command
> >
> > rename (stub1-stub1000) (mystub1-mystub1000)
> >
> > I can probably get the variable names inside a single local
> > more easily after which I might expect this to work:
> >
> > rename (`original') (`newnames')
> >
> > > -rename- as such places absolutely no restrictions on the use of
> > > locals in -rename- commands for the very simple and very fundamental
> > > reason that all macro references are interpreted before -rename-
gets
> > > to work. -rename- never sees any macro references, just their
> > > interpretations as macro contents.
> > >
> > > That said, let's emphasise that -rename-'s language is based on
> > > extensive use of wildcards.
> > >
> > > Either way, the heart of David's question seems to be whether a
common
> > > stub is needed for -rename- to work well, if at all, and the answer
is
> > > No.
> > >
> > > -rename- can be used with a first argument as general as (*),
meaning
> > > all variables, so there are no presumptions on the structure of
> > > variable names.
> > >
> > > Otherwise I think we need to see concrete examples to comment on
> > > apparent difficulties here.
> > >
> > > Nick
> > >
> > > On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 6:27 PM, Airey, David C
> > > <david.airey@vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > > With the new rename group command, can you use locals to rename a
> very
> > > > large number of variables from an old name set to a new name set
> where
> > > > there will be no stub used in either set?
> > > >
> > > > The syntax is
> > > >
> > > > rename (old1 old2) (new1 new2)
> > > >
> > > > but can locals be used inside the parentheses to represent a long
> list
> > > > of variable names to be switched? I can generate the locals using
> code
> > > > rather than typing.
> > > >
> > > > Otherwise, what is the best way to rename a whole bunch of
variables
> > > > to new names where the variables do not have stubs.
> > > >
> > > > I can do the renaming using a reshape and merge, but it seems
> clunky.
> >

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