st: Error message while renaming

["Md. Alauddin Majumder" <mm4v@mtmail.mtsu.edu>]

Dear Statalist,
I want to use the following command to rename a variable: rename E7011702 MAR_STATUS_1997.02. It returns the following error message. 

too many wildcards in newname
    You requested E7011702 be renamed MAR_STATUS_1997.02.  There are more wildcards in new than in old.
    Wildcards in old and new correspond one-to-one from left-to-right unless you specify explicit subscripts in
    new.  Anyway, rename ran out of wildcards in old when matching the wildcards in new.  Perhaps you just made
    a mistake or perhaps you forgot an explicit subscript in new.  Or perhaps you forgot to specify option
    addnumber, which allows you to specify an extra #, (#), (##), ...
r(198);

Is there any way out? Pls note that I prefer to keep the name exactly MAR_STATUS_1997.02.  Thanks in advance.


Regards
Majumder




















*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/