Re: st: removing leading blanks

[Abhimanyu Arora <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com>]

Thanks Nick, but doesn't it imply that the blanks are actually blanks
and not any other string characters?

But anyway, I was able to solve the issue by using
replace var1=substr(var1,5,.)

Wish you and all members of the statalist a very happy new year!

Best regards
Abhimanyu

On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 7:56 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> I find the elements of your report difficult to reconcile. You imply
> that -charlist- gives no output, which is not the case.
>
> Nick
>
> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Abhimanyu Arora
> <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Nick
>> Thanks for the tip.
>> I followed your suggestions but somehow still am unable to get things right.
>> Here are the steps I followed together with the displayed output.
>> Charlist rules out non-blank spaces, but-subinstr- with char(9) or "
>> ", both do not yield the desired outcome.
>>
>> . count
>>   10
>>
>> . gen problem=substr(var1,1,4)
>>
>> . charlist problem
>>
>>
>> . replace var1 = subinstr(var1, char(9), "", .)
>> (0 real changes made)
>>
>>
>> Now,
>>
>> . replace var1 = subinstr(var1, " ", "",. )
>> (10 real changes made)
>>
>> . gen problem2=substr(var1,1,3) *It seems the 10 changes are basically
>> left trimming by 1 leading blank space*
>>
>> . charlist problem2
>>
>>
>> . replace var1 = subinstr(var1, " ", "",. ) *Similar recursive steps
>> as above does not seem to work out*
>> (0 real changes made)
>>
>> Cheers
>> Abhimanyu
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 5:34 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> What you describe as blanks may be some other character(s).
>>>
>>> -charlist- (SSC) is a utility which may help.
>>>
>>> gen problem = substr(var1, 1, 4)
>>>
>>> charlist problem
>>>
>>> After finding out which characters are present, use code such as
>>>
>>> replace var1 = subinstr(var1, char(9), "", .)
>>>
>>> where 9 is a placeholder for the argument you need. (char(9) is a tab,
>>> and the characters might just be a tab.)
>>>
>>> Nick
>>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Abhimanyu Arora
>>> <abhimanyu.arora1987@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> All values of a string variable, var1, have 4 blank spaces in the beginning.
>>>> However, when I type in the command
>>>> -replace var1=ltrim(var1)- ,
>>>>  the output displays "0 real changes made" (and needless to say,
>>>> things remain as they were to start with)
>>>> Would be really great if this puzzling issue is sorted out.
>>>
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