Re: st: appending several files with different variable names

[Yogesh Uppal <stata.list.queries@gmail.com>]

Dear Daniel,

Thanks for your response and the code. I tried what Nick suggested for
the variables that did not have any common strings. It will be nice to
automate the process for other variables using your code. I will let
you how it works.

Many thanks,

Yogesh

On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 2:58 AM, daniel klein
<klein.daniel.81@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Yogesh,
>
> aside from the fact that several lines in your pseudo code will
> probably not do what you might expect, I understand that you want to
> create _one_ file.  I also understand you want to -rename- _one_
> variable that has *school* in its name to "school" in each file.
>
> Here is something you migth want to try. I am not sure about the
> double qoutes used. If your file names have embeded spaces you need to
> take this into account. Staring from you loop, when you already have
> the file names in a local, try
>
> foreach file in files {
>        qui u `file' ,clear
>        cap noi unab school : *school*
>        if _rc {
>                di as err "error occurred in `file'"
>                continue
>        }
>        if (`: word count `school'' > 1) {
>                di as txt "(note: more than one " /*
>                */ "variable *school* found in `file'"
>                [do whatever you want to do in this case]
>        }
>        cap noi ren `school' school
>        loc `"foundin `foundin' "new_`file'""'
>        sa new_`file'
> }
> gettoken firstfile foundin : foundin
> u `firstfile' ,clear
> ap using `foundin'
> sa file_country
>
> Best
> Daniel
>
> --
> Hi Nick,
>
> [...]
> Suppose I have a bunch of files to append. Each of these files is for
> a state and named file_* (e.g., file_AK.dta, file_AL.dta and so on).
> There is a variable that measures number of schools in each state. It
> is named num_schools in some files, schools_num or no_schools in
> others. Also, to make the matter worse, some files do not have this
> variable. What I was hoping is a way to collect all such variables
> that can be identified by a common string (school in this case)
> *
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