Ashim Kapoor wrote:
> Yes indeed. but how would you do the FIRST step that is guessing that
> you have to do " findit WORD". How would you guess that it is WORD
> which is the magic word? THAT is the key in the stata learning curve.
> That at least I am unable to think which magic word to key in. Maybe
> it is obvious to you.
>
Personally I'd have started at a different point to Kit.
You're working with local macros, as you clearly demonstrated with your
code so reading -man local- would be the obvious and intuitive place to
start. Theres no obvious solution to your problem there, but there are
multiple references to -extended_fcn-, and the (possibly) intutitively
titled -tokenize- which could have been used as part of a solution to
your original problem. The -extended_fcn- isn't obvious, but given its
prominence I'd have clicked through to read that which would have
mentioned the relevant macro for -word count string-.
In this instance there is no need for a "magic keyword", its just a case
of reading the documentation and related help pages for the functions
your using.
There is a definate art to searching though, you no doubt employ it when
searching the wider web/internet and the same approach can be applied
with a high degree of success to searching for a solution to a problem
with Stata (whether your searching Stata's help files, the archives or
the web at large). A bit of trial and error, reading the results to see
if they are pretinent, and patience and perserverence will usually get
you there (it might have got you to -renvars-).
Neil
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