Re: st: replace and strpos

[Daniel Feenberg <feenberg@nber.org>]

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Ona McCarthy wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have a list of around 300 postcodes that are string variables. I need 
> to change the postcode strings into their corresponding borough. I 
> succeeded in doing this to some extent by writing commands for each 
> string value using replace and strops. E.g.:
>
> replace borough  = "Camden" if strpos(postcode, "NW1")
>
> A problem arises when I run all the commands and it comes to a postcode 
> that contains some characters that are also in another postcode, i.e. it 
> overwrites the original.
>
> E.g. the above "Camden" is overwritten by "Westminster" when this 
> command is run:
>
> replace borough  = "Westminster" if strpos(postcode, "W1")
>
> Because it shares the "W1".
>
> Is there any way I can tell Stata to look for the EXACT postcode? I've 
> looked all around and can't figure it out.

I am interested in why the character comparison operator isn't suitable:

   replace borough = "Westinster" if postcode == "W1"

Alternatively, one could create a file of postcodes and boroughs, and 
merge it with the in-memory dataset by borough.

daniel feenberg
NBER

> Thanks,
>
> Ona
>
>
>  
>
>
>
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