Converting numeric to String

[Eli Hadad]

When I run the code

forvalues i=1(1)20{
tostring `i', replace(s`i') format(%02.0f)
}

i got the error message: 1 invalid name

What is wrong with the sintax?

[Chris Larkin]

You can't have variables in Stata called 1, 2, 3, ..., 20. See p.13 here for explanation. What are your variables actually called?

Also, the replace option of tostring doesn't take other parameters. See - help tostring - for more info.

I suspect you want to do this (but without seeing your variable names it's just guesswork):

forvalues i=1(1)20{
        tostring s`i', replace format(%2.0f)
}

[Nick Cox]

Going beyond Chris' helpful advice, let me flag that you don't need a loop with tostring. You can feed it a varlist. That was one of the reasons for writing it in the first place.

Also, if you want replace, not only are you not allowed to specify a new name, you shouldn't want to do that. replace means change the contents but keep the name.