Combine two strings with entry that has more information

[Felix Stips]

Dear statalists,

I have two variables that capture the same thing but with differing precision. One can imagine the data like this

Name1	Name2
Joe David Alex	Joe David
Stephen Henry	Stephen Henry Jr.

I am trying to think of a procedure to create a third variable that will contain the entry of either of the two variables where more information is stored. The criteria would then be that the string is longer, but I still cannot translate that into code right now. Does anybody have ideas?

Thank you!

[Nick Cox]

gen longer = cond(length(Name1) >= length(Name2), Name1, Name2)

trim(itrim()) would do no harm to avoid spurious comparisons based on extra spaces.

[Felix Stips]

On point, thanks Nick!