How to delete the spaces in the string?

[Fred Lee]

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str7 code
"       011592"
"       004698"
"       005927"
"       005928"
"       001245"
"       005669"
"011146" 
"       011147"
"       160643"
"       010364"
end

Thanks so much!

[Fred Lee]

why the above code cannnot generate observations? I generated using dataex command.

[Fei Wang]

You may try

replace code = subinstr(code, " ", "", .)

[Fred Lee]

You may try

replace code = subinstr(code, " ", "", .)

It cannot work. I guess there is some coding(gbk/unicode) issue in the dataset.

[Fred Lee]

https://xexx-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g...1sKcg?e=b3NwCU
Here is the original sample

[Fei Wang]

https://xexx-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g...1sKcg?e=b3NwCU
Here is the original sample

This will work.

replace code = ustrtrim(code)

[Fred Lee]

This will work.

replace code = ustrtrim(code)

Thanks! Correct! I tried

replace `v'=usubinstr(`v'," ","",.)

beforre, why this cannot work? Thanks

[Fei Wang]

Thanks! Correct! I tried

replace `v'=usubinstr(`v'," ","",.)

beforre, why this cannot work? Thanks

I guess it's because the leading space in code is not really "space" but some other invisible characters, so they cannot be explicitly replaced.

[Fred Lee]

I guess it's because the leading space in code is not really "space" but some other invisible characters, so they cannot be explicitly replaced.

Alright, I see. Thanks again! I am curious about what the exact the characters are. I copied the characters in the data frame while it couldn't be replaced.

[Nick Cox]

Use charlist (or better chartab) from SSC to identify characters. Here is one possible culprit:

. di ("|" + uchar(160) + "|")
| |

[Fred Lee]

Use charlist (or better chartab) from SSC to identify characters. Here is one possible culprit:

. di ("|" + uchar(160) + "|")
| |

How do you identify this?
I found there exist horizontal tabulation in my vaariable "code"

[Fred Lee]

how to delete the uchar(9) then?

[Nick Cox]

 
 replace `v'=usubinstr(`v', uchar(9), "", .)

[Fred Lee]

replace `v'=usubinstr(`v', uchar(9), "", .)

Thank you!