st: Re: converting a string variable that has leading and embedded blanks to a numeric variable.

["Joyce Chen" <chen20@fas.harvard.edu>]

You could try using the subinstr command, which can substitute the blanks 
with zeros.  I think you would want:

gen newhhid=subinstr(hhid," ","0",.)

and you could use destring or real(newhhid) to create a numeric variable.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ali Murat" <alimuratberker@gmail.com>
To: <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 1:33 PM
Subject: st: converting a string variable that has leading and embedded 
blanks to a numeric variable.



> Hello all,
>
> I  am trying to convert a string household indentification variable
> ,that has leading and embedded blanks,  to a numeric one. When I used
> the destring command, the new numeric household identification number
> has no longer unique values due to leading and embedded blanks in the
> orıginal  string household identification variable. To be more
> precise,  I would like to document what I have done so far:
>
>
>
> gen newhhid=hhid
>
> destring newhhid, replace ignore(" ")
>
> sort newid
>
> l hhid newhhid
>
>
>
> Obsnumber  hhid     newhhid
>
> 161. |         21 1       211 |
>
> 162. |         21 2       212 |
>
> 163. |          212       212 |
>
> 164. |          213       213 |
>
> 165. |         21 3       213 |
>
>      |------------------------|
>
> 166. |          214       214 |
>
> 167. |         21 4       214 |
>
>
>
> Please note that the observation 162 and 163 have a distinct hhid; the
> fist has an embedded blankd, the second has a leading blank. However,
> after using the destring command, they have same hhid number.
>
> How can I fix this problem.
>
> Thank you all for your kind concern and help.
>
> Best regards.
>
>
>
> Ali M. Berker
>
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