Subinstr() returns "invalid syntax" within foreach loop

[Yannick Bongaerts]

Hi,

I've tried to run this code multiple times with many adjustments, I also tried the solutions to similar problems with the subinstr() invalid syntax, but these don't seem to work. Can anyone tell me where my mistake lies?

local csvfiles : dir "input" files "*.csv"
foreach file of local csvfiles {
    import delimited `"input/`file'"', clear delimiters(",") varnames(1)
    local name : subinstr("`file'", ".csv" , "", .)
    save `"output/`name'.dta"', replace
    }

Thanks!

[Maarten Buis]

You seem to be mixing syntax from the subinstr() function (help string functions) with the syntax from the subinstr extened macro function (help extended_fcn)

This is how you would do this with extended macro functions

l

local name : subinstr local file ".csv" "", all

This is how you would do this as a function

local name = subinstr(`"`file'"',".csv", "", .)

[Nick Cox]

Nothing to do with working in a loop. You should go

local name = subinstr("`file'", ".csv", "", .)

To debug, put

display "`file'"

to see what it is that you just created.

[Yannick Bongaerts]

Thanks Maarten Buis Nick Cox!! I indeed mixed the syntax for the funtion and extended macro function. Another folowup question: in terms of efficiency, runs one of the two methods faster than the other, or is there not really a difference in speed?

[Nick Cox]

It's hard to imagine either operation taking up any appreciable time, but I am no expert at what happens at machine level.

[Yannick Bongaerts]

I ran the funtion within a loop which goes trough 25 datafiles with an average of 70 variables and 250 000 entries so it took a few minutes... Hence my question