Re: st: RE: Generating a value depending on filename

[Jack Newsham <j.newsham@gmail.com>]

Dear Sergiy and Joe,

Thank you very much for the tips. I've gotten tied up in another task,
but I should finish both of them tonight, and will update the thread
if I get hung up.

Best,
Jack

On Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 7:33 PM, Sergiy Radyakin <serjradyakin@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jack, in addition to the previous posting, couple of more comments:
>
> THIS:
> gen state = 01 if filename == "AL_labor_vars.xls" | 02 if filename
> =="AK_labor_vars.xls"
> WILL NOT WORK as you intend:
> 1) filename will be interpreted as a variable name. You probably mean
> `"`c(filename)'"'. But don't use it after importing data.
>
> 2) and 3) are actually so common I wrote a reusable text for beginners here:
> http://radyakin.org/statalist/text/conditions.htm
>
> 4) if you loop by the initials, use them in branching (this is an
> advice, not a bug) instead of the filename. Instead of
> if filename == "AL_labor_vars.xls"
> you can write
> if `"`initials'"' == "AL"
> (just in case you'll need to process e.g. prices data instead of the
> labor indicators one day).
>
> 5) if you loop by a string content, consider generating a string
> variable, then append all 50 datasets, then encode the string variable
> to a numeric variable in one swoop.
>
> 6) there are tons of different ways to do things in Stata. Given Joe's
> and my comments, perhaps restructure your question into two: one
> idealistic: what do I want to achieve? (encode a variable to match a
> certain coding, leaving gaps in codes, match FIPS, whatever) and
> another implementational (how exactly do I do this and that?)
>
> Best, Sergiy Radyakin
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 4:48 PM, Joe Canner <jcanner1@jhmi.edu> wrote:
>> Jack,
>>
>> How about:
>>
>> foreach initials in AK AL AR AZ CA {
>>   import excel `initials'_labor_vars.xls, sheet("BLS Data Series") firstrow
>>   gen stateinit = "`initials'"
>>   encode stateinit, gen(statecode)
>> }
>>
>> The variable -stateinit- will be a string variable with the state's initials and the variable -statecode- will be a number from 1 to 51 corresponding to the alphabetical order of the initials.  Let us know if that is not what you want.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Joe Canner
>> Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Jack Newsham
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 4:24 PM
>> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>> Subject: st: Generating a value depending on filename
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm working with state-by-state employment data on 51 Excel
>> spreadsheets that I plan to eventually append together and merge into
>> my main project file. Each spreadsheet is organized in columns
>> containing the year, month, and several measures of employment, with
>> only the name of the spreadsheet identifying the state whose data it
>> contains. I am attempting to create two variables -- "time" and
>> "state" -- to merge these data into my main file.
>>
>> I'm somewhat of a Stata naif, however, and I'm running into a problem
>> when I try to generate "state" and give it a different value in every
>> spreadsheet. My use of  "if filename ==" and "if using" seem to be the
>> source of the problem, but I can't imagine how to generate a state
>> variable with a different value in each file. I've excerpted from my
>> do file, in relevant part. Can you advise? Is there a way to do this
>> in a loop? My thanks for any pointers.
>>
>> foreach initials in AK AL AR AZ CA {
>> * The clear command is at the end of this loop.
>> import excel `initials'_labor_vars.xls, sheet("BLS Data Series") firstrow
>> * Create time variable by which to merge:
>> encode period,gen(monthnum)
>> gen time = (year * 100) + monthnum
>> * Create state variable by which to merge:
>> gen state = 01 if filename == "AL_labor_vars.xls" | 02 if filename ==
>> "AK_labor_vars.xls" |  ///
>> 04 if filename == "AZ_labor_vars.xls" | 05 if filename ==
>> "AR_labor_vars.xls" | ///
>> 06 if filename == "CA_labor_vars.xls"
>> }
>>
>> Best,
>> Jack Newsham
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