st: Fwd: Automation: moving values to eliminate blank cells from variables.

[John Adam Roberts <roberts.john.adam@gmail.com>]

 Specifically, the form allowed for up to 15 organizations to be entered into
 a particular set of fields, but many forms were not filled out in order and
 I need to correct for this.

 Example of what I have:
  (X1-X6 are the variables, and the numbers below represent where the
 observations are found.  e.g. in row 1, 2 is under the X4.  This refers to
 the fact that the second observation is listed under variable X4, when it
 should be under X2.)

 fig. 1
 X1    X2    X3    X4    X5    X6
  1                     2
  1      2      3
  1      2             3      4
          1             2

 Example of what I need to achieve:
 fig. 2
 X1    X2    X3    X4    X5    X6
  1      2
  1      2      3
  1      2      3      4
  1      2


 I have built a string variable Y that holds where the information is.
 e.g.
 for row 1 fig.1, it is    "1, , ,2, , "
 for row 2 fig.1, it is    "1,2,3, , , "
 for row 3 fig.1, it is    "1,2, ,3,4, "

 Now I need to implement a loop to actually move the values from the cells
 they are in, to where they should be.
 This is the code structure that I have been trying to implement.
>
> foreach _n in _N{
>         **sets macro to the relevant cell of Y, and figures out how many
> values I have in the
>         **macro
> local posY = Y[_n]
> local n_models: word count "`posY'"
> foreach z in "`posY'"{
>
> ** replace cell with the contents of the variable it should have (as
> identified in Y)
>   forval i = 1/"`n_models'" {
> local y: word `i' of "`posY'"
> replace Bidder_`i' = Bidder_`y'
> }
> }
>
> ** make all remaining variables blank
>         forval i = "`n_model'"/15 {
> replace Bidder_`i' = ""
> }
>
> }


 Any help on how to make this work, or even a different approach to the
 problem would be greatly appreciated.

 JA



--
Sincerely,
(John) Adam Roberts
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