missings report, sysmiss [trim piasm possible?]

[Franz Gerbig]

hi folks,

I'd like to work with completely empty (or nonempty) variables, only (about 1200 to 1300 variables each group of vars).
Is there a way to assure, strings to be included in the `r(varlist)' (of empty vars) if they contain nothing more than the ordinary "." or " " ...?
Using missings, I miss the option trim piasm (as for the quite crude dropmiss).

missings report, sysmiss min(all obs)

The aim is keep one (or the other) group of vars, run desc, replace clear , and export the resulting metadata "observations" as Excel to easily work on the list of variables including varlab, type andsoforth as "variables" ...

thx a lot

[Nick Cox]

This alludes to


SJ-17-3 dm0085_1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Software update for missings
(help missings if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q3/17 SJ 17(3):779
identify() and sort options have been added

SJ-15-4 dm0085 Speaking Stata: A set of utilities for managing missing values
(help missings if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q4/15 SJ 15(4):1174--1185
provides command, missings, as a replacement for, and extension
of, previous commands nmissing and dropmiss

and to

SJ-15-4 dm89_2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Software update for dropmiss
(help dropmiss if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q4/15 SJ 15(4):1186--1187
dropmiss command has been superseded by a new command, missings,
which offers various utilities for managing variables that may
have missing values

SJ-8-4 dm89_1 . . . . Dropping variables or observations with missing values
(help dropmiss if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q4/08 SJ 8(4):594
update in style and content; added a new force option

STB-60 dm89 . . . . . Dropping variables or observations with missing values
(help dropmiss if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
3/01 pp.7--8; STB Reprints Vol 10, pp.44--46
drops variables or observations with all values (optionally
any values) missing

Please remember to explain the provenance of community-contributed commands you refer to (FAQ Advice #12).

piasm is here "period is also string missing" and not a medical term you've never encountered before.

Sorrry, but the short answer is No. In rewriting a command -- in this case after 14 years -- my simple aim was to add new ideas and remove not so good ideas. I decided that users' ideas of what is really missing (as might be considered true of multiple spaces and/or periods in strings) were really users' concern and that only Stata's definitions of missings should be considered.

However, if you use findname

SJ-15-2 dm0048_3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Software update for findname
(help findname if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q2/15 SJ 15(2):605--606
updated to be able to find strL variables

SJ-12-1 dm0048_2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Software update for findname
(help findname if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q1/12 SJ 12(1):167
correction for handling embedded double quote characters

SJ-10-4 dm0048_1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Software update for findname
(help findname if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q4/10 SJ 10(4):691
update for not option

SJ-10-2 dm0048 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speaking Stata: Finding variables
(help findname if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
Q2/10 SJ 10(2):281--296
produces a list of variable names showing which variables
have specific properties, such as being of string type, or
having value labels attached, or having a date format


then

findname, type(string) any(inlist(trim(@), "", "."))

will find string variables with any values that trim to missing (hence one or more spaces) or to ".".

[Franz Gerbig]

OK. Thank you for the quick response!