Truncating is easy: use -substr(varname,1,8)-.
The problem often is that the
first eight characters are not unique e.g. common
naming practices often yield "argentinaimports66"
"argentinaimports67" etc.
I'd try something like this:
1. use -abbrev(,)- to get an abbreviation.
2. replace the "~" with "_".
3. replace the "." with "_".
4. check to see that there are no duplicates
in that list. Here no news is good news.
There's no guarantee, so far as I know, that
this will work.
foreach v of var * {
local new = subinstr(abbrev("`v'", 8),"~","_",.)
local new = subinstr("`new'",".","_",.)
local newlist "`newlist'`new' "
}
di "`: list dups newlist'"
For systematic renaming, one possibility is -renvars-
from STB-60.
If all else fails, use something like
d, s
renvars \ v1-v`r(k)'
Nick
[email protected]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of atobias
> Sent: 05 February 2004 12:34
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: st: truncating variable names
>
>
> Dear Statalisters,
>
> There is any way to truncate automatically a long variable name, like
> those used in Stata 8, into the classical shorter way of only 8
> characters?.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
>
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
*
* For searches and help try:
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* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
