Re: st: -destring- and missing values

[Laura Gibbons <gibbonsl@u.washington.edu>]

Definitely.  In my emailer, the values 1 and 2 have an A circumflex after them.

On Wed, 2 Oct 2013, Nick Cox wrote:

> I'd check for non-standard characters that can't be printed, e.g.
> using -charlist- (SSC).
>
> I agree with the principle that -destring- should ignore spaces.
> Nick
> njcoxstata@gmail.com
>
>
> On 2 October 2013 17:07, Jeph Herrin <stata@spandrel.net> wrote:
> > All,
> >
> > I have hundreds of variables that look like this:
> >
> > . d q1
> >
> >               storage   display    value
> > variable name   type    format     label      variable label
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> > q1               str2    %2s
> >
> > . tab q1, m
> >
> >         q1  |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
> > ------------+-----------------------------------
> >             |          2        0.89        0.89
> >          1  |        216       96.00       96.89
> >          2  |          7        3.11      100.00
> > ------------+-----------------------------------
> >       Total |        225      100.00
> >
> > but when I try to use -destring-
> >
> > . destring q1, replace
> > q1  contains nonnumeric characters; no replace
> >
> > According to the documentation,
> >
> >     destring treats both empty strings "" and "." as indicating sysmiss
> > (.)...
> >     destring also ignores any leading or trailing spaces so that, for
> > example,
> >     " " is equivalent to "" and " . " is equivalent to ".".
> >
> > Why is -destring- not converting my variables to numeric? I think I must be
> > missing something very obvious.
> >
> > I can get around this by
> >
> >  replace q1 = "." if mi(q1)
> >
> > but I don't think I should have to.
> >
> >
> > J
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laura E. Gibbons, PhD
General Internal Medicine, University of Washington
Box 359780, Harborview Medical Center, 325 Ninth Ave, Seattle, WA 98104
phone: 206-744-1842, fax: 206-744-9917,
Office address: 401 Broadway, Suite 5122.6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*
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