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Re: st: renaming variables from first observation
From
Abhimanyu Arora <[email protected]>
To
[email protected]
Subject
Re: st: renaming variables from first observation
Date
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:12:21 +0200
Thanks a lot indeed Nick for the elegant solution and clear
explanation of `=exp'. Potentially today's most useful thing learned.
And thanks to Matthew, too for the handy option.
Cheers
Abhimanyu
On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 12:04 PM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
> Yes indeed.
>
> -strtoname()- arrived in Stata long after even the last update of
> -renvars-, but that doesn't rule out anything.
>
> renvars, map(strtoname(@[1]))
>
> would I guess be the recipe to try, or
>
> forval j = 1/14 {
> rename var`j' `=strtoname(var`j'[1])'
> }
>
> Nick
>
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:57 AM, Matthew White
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> It'd create longer variable names, but maybe -strtoname()- is another option?
>
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 9:27 AM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>> In fact, much of the last part of this to with -renvars- is a red
>>> herring. I was wondering exactly why my code with -renvars- worked; I
>>> just figured out that it was an accident in the original example in
>>> which buggy code gave the right answer for the wrong reason.
>>>
>>> Better code is
>>>
>>> renvars , map(word(@[1], 1))
>>>
>>> This should be more transparent. The idiosyncratic detail is that @ is
>>> a placeholder for each variable name in turn. The recipe then is to
>>> use the first word of the value in the first observation. So for
>>> -var1- the new name would be the value of
>>>
>>> word(var1[1], 1)
>>>
>>> Nick
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Let's assume that your first values are all legal names. You could
>>>> indeed do this
>>>>
>>>> forval j = 1/14 {
>>>> local names `names' `=var`j'[1]'
>>>> }
>>>> renvars var1-var14 \ `names'
>>>>
>>>> But that's actually dozens of lines more code (look _inside_ -renvars-) than
>>>>
>>>> forval j = 1/14 {
>>>> rename var`j' `=var`j'[1]'
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> and the second is in any case shorter and more direct, even without
>>>> looking inside -renvars-.
>>>>
>>>> You asked what a solution was with -renvars- and I agree that it looks
>>>> complicated. The -map()- option was mine and intended as an outlet for
>>>> the desperate user-programmer whose problem was not met by any of the
>>>> other options. But usually you need to be moderately fluent in Stata
>>>> to make effective use of it. The program was written for the authors'
>>>> use and any utility beyond that is a pleasant side-effect!
>>>>
>>>> `= exp'
>>>>
>>>> evaluates an expression on the fly and is documented tersely at -help
>>>> macro-. But the main idea is simple. Consider as part of a command
>>>> line
>>>>
>>>> `= 2 + 2'
>>>>
>>>> Stata sees ` ' and so expects something like a macro reference to be
>>>> substituted. But instead of a macro name there is
>>>>
>>>> = 2 + 2
>>>>
>>>> Stata does the calculation on the fly. In this case the result is 4
>>>> and that is what the command would see.
>>>>
>>>> -renvars- is over a decade old now. After that length of time
>>>> StataCorp caught up and the official -rename- is now much versatile in
>>>> Stata 12, although I doubt it has a way to solve your problem without
>>>> a loop. I would be happy to be shown wrong on that.
>>>>
>>>> Nick
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 9:50 AM, Abhimanyu Arora
>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Yes Nick, precisely, my values in the first observation were not
>>>>> legal. What I meant by storing values in a macro was something like a
>>>>> horizontal -levelsof- command. Once I obtain the values in a single
>>>>> macro I thought of simply using your and Jeroen Weesie's -renvars-.
>>>>>
>>>>> But the map option seems not that easy to understand, perhaps because
>>>>> I find `quotes' confusing sometimes. One needs to have a string
>>>>> expression in the parentheses while using the map option but I see
>>>>> that the expression in your example is in `quotes', normally used for
>>>>> macros. Would be really great if you could clarify this fundamental
>>>>> issue.
>>>>>
>>>>> Many thanks
>>>>> Abhimanyu
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> . list in 1
>>>>>
>>>>> +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>>>> 1. | var1 | var2 | var3 | var4 | var5
>>>>> | var6 | var7 | var8 | var9 | var10 | var11 | var12 |
>>>>> | Series Code | Series Name | Country Code | Country Name | 2000
>>>>> | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
>>>>> |---------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------|
>>>>> | var13 |
>>>>> var14 |
>>>>> | 2008 |
>>>>> 2009 |
>>>>> +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Nick Cox <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> Already answered, but not correctly. You could e.g. use the first word
>>>>>> of the first value. This works:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> . l
>>>>>>
>>>>>> +------------------------------+
>>>>>> | var1 var2 var3 |
>>>>>> |------------------------------|
>>>>>> 1. | Frog Toad Venomous snake |
>>>>>> 2. | 1 2 3 |
>>>>>> +------------------------------+
>>>>>>
>>>>>> . renvars , map(`=word("@", 1)')
>>>>>>
>>>>>> . l
>>>>>>
>>>>>> +------------------------------+
>>>>>> | Frog Toad Venomous |
>>>>>> |------------------------------|
>>>>>> 1. | Frog Toad Venomous snake |
>>>>>> 2. | 1 2 3 |
>>>>>> +------------------------------+
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nick
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 9:25 AM, Abhimanyu Arora
>>>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>> I caught the mistake, thanks to -set trace on-. 'Code' is the second
>>>>>>> word of my observation of the first variable and of course a variable
>>>>>>> name has to be single worded. But my question on possibility of using
>>>>>>> Nick's -renvars- remains.
>>>>>>> Best regards
>>>>>>> Abhimanyu
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:07 AM, Abhimanyu Arora
>>>>>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>>> Good morning statalist
>>>>>>>> I would like to rename my variables var1-var14 to the corresponding
>>>>>>>> values from the first observation.
>>>>>>>> I followed the post on
>>>>>>>> http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2004-07/msg00009.html and
>>>>>>>> modified it for my purpose.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> but I got this error
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> . forvalues k = 1/14 {
>>>>>>>> 2. local newname = var`k'[1]
>>>>>>>> 3. ren var`k' `newname'
>>>>>>>> 4. }
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Code not allowed
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Also is it posible to store the values of an observation in a macro?
>>>>>>>> Perhaps I could then use Nick Cox's -renvars-?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> *
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Matthew White
>> Data Coordinator
>> Innovations for Poverty Action
>> 101 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06510 USA
>> www.poverty-action.org
>>
>> *
>> * For searches and help try:
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>> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>>
>
> *
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>
*
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