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RE: st: upper case to lower case for all variable names


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   RE: st: upper case to lower case for all variable names
Date   Wed, 23 Nov 2005 20:45:43 -0000

Good catch on -capture-. Elsewhere in 
quoting this solution I have used it, 
but it belongs on every quotation. 

Nick 
[email protected] 

David Moore
 
> Another issue surfaces when any of the variable names is 
> already lower case.  Then the rename command throws up 
> because it's being
> asked to rename a var to one that already exists.
> 
> A general solution, then, should not assume the left-hand 
> side differs from the right-hand side.  A simple work around 
> would prefix
> the rename command with -capture-:
> 
>    foreach v of varlist _all {
>       capture rename `v' `=lower("`v'")'
>    }
> 
> This cautionary tale comes from first-hand experience, so it 
> isn't necessarily unlikely
 
Nick Cox
 
> It's worth explaining the bridge between
> this and much shorter solutions given by
> others.
> 
> The assumption that variable names go
> from VAR1-VAR999 can be replaced by
> a specification
> 
> <whateverisfirstinyourdata>-<whateverislastinyourdata>
> 
> and in turn by the wildcard * or _all.
> 
> Then you have no need to drop existing macros.
> You can do the renaming on the fly:
> 
> foreach v of var * {
> 	rename `v' `=lower("`v'")'
> }
> 
> A small risk with this last trick is that
> "all variables" could include temporary variables
> with names like __00000A. -rename- that to
> __00000a and you will have programming problems.
> 
> However, when this is done it is, I guess,
> virtually always with the main dataset, and interactively,
> so no temporary variables are in sight.
> 
> Nick
> [email protected]
> 
> Rafal Raciborski
> 
> > assuming your variables go from VAR1 to VAR999:
> >
> > macro drop _all
> > foreach i of varlist VAR1-VAR999 {
> > 	local j = lower("`i'")
> > 	rename `i' `j'
> > 	macro drop j
> > }

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