Stata destring with removing weird characters
STATA destring with only keeping numeric numbers
The newest solution to this problem is: egen-method as described below followed by: replace problemvar = subinstr(problemvar, ",", ".",.) https://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2009-05/msg00862.html followed by: destring problemvar, replace *without the 'dpcomma' option. Dieter Van Der Westhuizen
Mon 2020-07-27 03:01 PM Sent Items
To:Jody Rusch (jody.rusch@nhls.ac.za); Follow-up from my previous email:
*This command works when one has either comma or period in the field:
destring kknew3, replace dpcomma
Dieter Van Der Westhuizen Mon 2020-07-27 02:39 PM Sent Items
How to strip special characters in STATA variables:
Type the following:
***********************************
program define extrnum
version 7
syntax varlist(max=1) , gen(str)
local maxlen: type `varlist'
local maxlen=substr("`maxlen'",4,.)
tempvar work
qui gen str1 `work'=""
forvalues i=1/`maxlen' {
qui replace `work'=`work'+substr(`varlist',`i',1) if real(substr(`varlist',`i',1))<.
}
gen `gen'=real(`work')
end
*************************************
How to use:
extrnum var1, gen(newvar1)
It works perfectly except it drops the commas too:
**Thus use: findit egenmore **and install the app “egenmore” by following the instructions. **Then one can specify to keep the following characters: egen kknew3 = sieve(kk), char(0123456789.,) **Which lets you end up with this:
Destringing this doesn’t work yet, as some characters have “.” and others have “,”
Dieter Van Der Westhuizen Mon 2020-07-27 11:30 AM Sent Items
Dieter van der Westhuizen
Chemical Pathology RegistrarC17 NHLS Pathology Laboratory, Groote Schuur Hospital and Red Cross Children’s Hospital LaboratoryTel: 021 404 4135 | Cell: +27 82 861 2093 | Fax-to-email: 0866 090 397dieter.vdwesthuizen@nhls.ac.za | www.nhls.ac.za