Re: st: AW: strpos: cleaning string variables

[Emily Farchy <emily.farchy@sant.ox.ac.uk>]

Thanks a lot Hanno,

This looks along the right lines my only worry would be that I can't say +3 or +5 because there is no fixed rule
eg,
> "Drs. Makmur Syahputra, Sh" -->"Makmur Syah Putra"
> "H Amru Helmy Daulay Sh" --> "Amru Helmy Daulay"
The first would require deleting 4 characters (5 if include the space) and the second would require trimming by only 1 charater

Have I misunderstood?

Emily
On Feb 21, 2011, at 8:35 PM, Hanno Scholtz wrote:

> Hi Emily
> 
> in a similar task I first saved the blank positions and afterwards split the
> string in its components:
> 
>  gen     p1=strpos(content,", ")-1;
>  gen     p2=strpos(substr(content,p1+3,.),", ")-1;
>  gen     p3=strpos(substr(content,p1+p2+5,.),", ")-1;
>  gen     p4=strpos(substr(content,p1+p2+p3+7,.),", ")-1;
>  gen     p5=strpos(substr(content,p1+p2+p3+p4+9,.),", ")-1;
>  gen     p6=strpos(substr(content,p1+p2+p3+p4+p5+11,.),", ")-1;
>  replace p1=length(content) if cparts==1;
>  replace p2=length(substr(content,p1+3,.)) if cparts==2;
>  replace p3=length(substr(content,p1+p2+5,.))  if cparts==3;
>  replace p4=length(substr(content,p1+p2+p3+7,.))  if cparts==4;
>  replace p5=length(substr(content,p1+p2+p3+p4+9,.))  if cparts==5;
>  replace p6=length(substr(content,p1+p2+p3+p4+p5+11,.))  if cparts==6;
>  gen     c1=substr(content,1,p1);
>  gen     c2=substr(content,p1+3,p2);
>  gen     c3=substr(content,p1+p2+5,p3);
>  gen     c4=substr(content,p1+p2+p3+7,p4);
>  gen     c5=substr(content,p1+p2+p3+p4+9,p5);
>  gen     c6=substr(content,p1+p2+p3+p4+p5+11,p6);
>  drop p1-p6;
> 
> Okay, it won't get a price for elegance, but it worked.
> 
> Best, 
> Hanno
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] Im Auftrag von Emily Farchy
> Gesendet: Montag, 21. Februar 2011 21:29
> An: 'statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu'
> Betreff: st: strpos: cleaning string variables
> 
> I would like to run a loop to transform some messy names into cleaner
> versions eg
> "Drs. H. Muslim Kasim, Ak"--> "Muslim Kasim"
> "Drs. Makmur Syahputra, Sh" -->"Makmur Syah Putra"
> "H Amru Helmy Daulay Sh" --> "Amru Helmy Daulay"
> 
> I was thinking of using the strpos command which seems like it might be
> useful but is there a way to get it to find the nth occurrence (eg of a
> space) and a way to eliminate substrings of for example 3 letters or less?
> 
> I was working on the following but get stuck when I pass the first occurence
> 
> foreach x of local xlist {
> 	
> 	**** get rid of . , or & in name (A, B --> A B; st. A -->  st A, A &
> B --> A and B)
> 	foreach z in , . & {
> 		qui gen `x'_bh= trim(substr(`x', 1, strpos(`x', "`z'")-1))
> 		qui gen `x'_ah= trim(substr(`x', strpos (`x', "`z'")+1, 50))
> 		qui gen `x'_mid= substr(`x', strpos (`x', "`z'"), 1)
> 
> 		replace `x'=trim(`x'_bh+" "+`x'_ah)
> 		replace `x'=trim(`x'_bh+" and "+`x'_ah) if `x'_mid=="&"
> 
> 		drop `x'_bh `x'_ah `x'_mid
> 		}
> 	}
> 
> Thanks a lot
> 
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