Extract info in parenthesis in string

[Annakatharina Bohm]

Hi there!

I have a string variable in my data set which contains information in brackets (the brand) that I need in a separate vairable:

VARIABLE
Product1(Brand1)
Product1(Brand2)
Product 2(Brand 1)
Product 2a(Brand 1)
Product 45(Brand345)
Product 62(Brand1)

Since the length of the string is different, I guess I need to approach it over the parenthesis? Any idea how to extract what is in brackets? That would be fantastic!
Best,
Anna

[Nick Cox]

You could use strpos() to search for parentheses (as () are better called) or a regular expression. Here I use moss (SSC) as a convenience wrapper.

clear
input str42 whatever
 "Product1(Brand1)"
 "Product1(Brand2)"
 "Product 2(Brand 1)"
 "Product 2a(Brand 1)"
 "Product 45(Brand345)"
 "Product 62(Brand1)"
 end
 
ssc inst moss
moss whatever, match("\((.*)\)") regex

l

     +--------------------------------------------------+
     |             whatever   _count    _match1   _pos1 |
     |--------------------------------------------------|
  1. |     Product1(Brand1)        1     Brand1      11 |
  2. |     Product1(Brand2)        1     Brand2      11 |
  3. |   Product 2(Brand 1)        1    Brand 1      12 |
  4. |  Product 2a(Brand 1)        1    Brand 1      13 |
  5. | Product 45(Brand345)        1   Brand345      13 |
     |--------------------------------------------------|
  6. |   Product 62(Brand1)        1     Brand1      13 |
     +--------------------------------------------------+

See http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/A/ASCII.html for a helpful guide to character names