Unwanted*names in a variable

[Aminu Shittu]

Dear Statalisters,

I directly copied the dataset from Access and pasted it into the Excel. From the large dataset with 16763 observations of individual patients, a variable "province" which is defined as "the state where a sample originated", I tabulated the variable which resulted into giving me the frequency of submissions by state, but then some unwanted names (numbers, and those in CAPS) appeared in the output. I checked the Excel file and discovered that no such names exist under the variable "province"; however, those names in CAPS actually appear under the variable "district" which is linked with each province; the numbers seems to be dates of sample collection. Please how can I correct this problem?

Province Freq.	Percent	Cum.
0	3	0.02	0.02
1	3	0.02	0.04
10	4	0.02	0.06
12	1	0.01	0.07
2	7	0.04	0.11
4	3	0.02	0.13
42965	1	0.01	0.13
42971	1	0.01	0.14
5	3	0.02	0.15
6	2	0.01	0.17
9	1	0.01	0.17
Abia	212	1.26	1.43
Adamawa	601	3.58	5.01
Akwa Ibom	343	2.04	7.05
Anambra	228	1.36	8.41
Bauchi	623	3.71	12.12
Bayelsa	157	0.93	13.06
Benue	436	2.60	15.65
Borno	740	4.41	20.06
Cross River	269	1.60	21.66
Delta	325	1.93	23.59
Ebonyi	205	1.22	24.81
Edo	522	3.11	27.92
Ekiti	382	2.27	30.20
Enugu	375	2.23	32.43
FCT, Abuja	498	2.96	35.39
Gombe	430	2.56	37.95
Imo	381	2.27	40.22
Jigawa	865	5.15	45.37
Kaduna	567	3.38	48.75
Kano	1,412	8.41	57.15
Katsina	817	4.86	62.02
Kebbi	802	4.77	66.79
Kogi	259	1.54	68.33
Kwara	152	0.90	69.24
LAYIN ASIBITI	1	0.01	69.24
Lagos	440	2.62	71.86
Nasarawa	336	2.00	73.86
Niger	349	2.08	75.94
Ogun	384	2.29	78.23
Ondo	374	2.23	80.45
Osun	280	1.67	82.12
Oyo	331	1.97	84.09
Plateau	582	3.46	87.56
Rivers	402	2.39	89.95
Sokoto	481	2.86	92.81
TERMANA	1	0.01	92.82
TSWANKYAM	1	0.01	92.83
Taraba	363	2.16	94.99
UMUALIKA	1	0.01	94.99
WUKARI	1	0.01	95.00
Yobe	492	2.93	97.93
Zamfara	348	2.07	100.00
Total	16,797	100.00

[Clyde Schechter]

It is impossible to answer this question without seeing an example of the data that produced the problem. Please post back showing example data, and please make sure that the example you show does result in the problem you are having. Please use the -dataex- command to do this. If you are running version 15.1 or a fully updated version 14.2, it is already part of your official Stata installation. If not, run -ssc install dataex- to get it. Either way, run -help dataex- to read the simple instructions for using it. -dataex- will save you time; it is easier and quicker than typing out tables. It includes complete information about aspects of the data that are often critical to answering your question but cannot be seen from tabular displays or screenshots. It also makes it possible for those who want to help you to create a faithful representation of your example to try out their code, which in turn makes it more likely that their answer will actually work in your data.

[Marcos Almeida]

Just a side note, after Clyde's advice.

You may wish to - codebook Province - and check it out.

That said, there are other issues to be solved as well, before being confident that the data set is not under a messy condition.

For example, you said the sample has 16763 observations. Well, since the cumulative frequency was equal 16797, we shall have 34 "unexpected" observations. However, if we count the "unwanted names", there are only 29 of them.

[Aminu Shittu]

Hi Clyde and Marcos,

It is now working when I used import excel .

Thank you,

Aminu.