Just a picky footnote: the initial -generate-
and repeated -replace- can be avoided here.
gen var1copy = var1
gen comma = 0
gen length = length(var1)
summ length
local length = r(max)
forvalues i = 1/`length' {
replace comma = comma + 1 if substr(var1,1,1)==","
replace var1 = substr(var1,2,.)
}
can thus be slimmed to
gen comma = 0
gen length = length(var1)
summ length, meanonly
forvalues i = 1/`r(max)' {
replace comma = comma + (substr(var1,`i',1) == ",")
}
or, if you were paid by the reciprocal of the number of
lines written, to
gen comma = 0
forvalues i = 1/`=substr("`: type var1'",4,.)' {
replace comma = comma + substr(var1,`i',1) == ",")
}
Nick
[email protected]
Rafal Raciborski
> I did not find an earlier answer either but the below works fine.
> rafal
>
>
> . use comma, clear
>
> . list
>
> +-----------------------------+
> | var1 |
> |-----------------------------|
> 1. | one, two, three |
> 2. | one |
> 3. | one, two, three three, four |
> 4. | one one, two two, |
> 5. | ,, one |
> |-----------------------------|
> 6. | |
> 7. | one, two,,, |
> 8. | ,,,, |
> 9. | ,,.., |
> 10. | ,. .. . ,, ,-, =. |
> +-----------------------------+
>
> . gen var1copy = var1
> (1 missing value generated)
>
> . gen comma = 0
>
> . gen length = length(var1)
>
> . summ length
>
> Variable | Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
> -------------+--------------------------------------------------------
> length | 10 10.8 8.534896 0 27
>
> . local length = r(max)
>
> . forvalues i = 1/`length' {
> 2. replace comma = comma + 1 if substr(var1,1,1)==","
> 3. replace var1 = substr(var1,2,.)
> 4. }
>
> <snip>
>
> . list
>
> +-----------------------------------------------------+
> | var1 var1copy comma length |
> |-----------------------------------------------------|
> 1. | one, two, three 2 15 |
> 2. | one 0 3 |
> 3. | one, two, three three, four 3 27 |
> 4. | one one, two two, 2 18 |
> 5. | ,, one 2 7 |
> |-----------------------------------------------------|
> 6. | 0 0 |
> 7. | one, two,,, 4 11 |
> 8. | ,,,, 4 4 |
> 9. | ,,.., 3 5 |
> 10. | ,. .. . ,, ,-, =. 5 18 |
> +-----------------------------------------------------+
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