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Re: st: macro for the type of a variable (string/numeric)


From   David Kantor <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: macro for the type of a variable (string/numeric)
Date   Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:25:30 -0400

At 11:01 AM 4/21/2008, you wrote:
The following program is a kluge to determine the type of a variable and to assign a string to a local macro which tells us the type. Is there some better way? For instance, "return list" after "describe myvar" or "codebook myvar" does not tell us this.

program returnType
args THISVAR
* Determine whether it is a numeric or string variable.
* kluge: if THISVAR is numeric with all missing, this program thinks it's string.
quietly: summarize `THISVAR'
if r(N)==0 {
local thisTYPE="string"
}
else {
local thisTYPE="numeric"
}
display "`thisTYPE'"
end
[...]
Perhaps what you want is...
local typ : type `THISVAR'

This will tell the specific type. If you want to be more general, then test whether substr("`typ'", 1,3) == "str"

I wouldn't bother making this into a program.

HTH
--David

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