update lookfor2 package available on SSC

[Maarten Buis]

Thanks to Kit Baum a new version of the lookfor2 package is now available on SSC. lookfor2 is a command that allows you to search for a variable in your dataset; it searches for the text you specify in the variable names, variable labels, value labels, and notes (the official lookfor command only searches in the variables names and labels). For example:

. sysuse nlsw88, clear
(NLSW, 1988 extract)

. lookfor farmers

. lookfor2 farmers

Variable      Storage   Display    Value
    name         type    format    label      Variable label
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
occupation      byte    %22.0g     occlbl     Occupation

The new version also includes the command closedesc. It describes the variables that are close (in terms of the order of variables in the dataset) to a variable you specify. In most datasets I deal with, the variables are grouped together by topic. So if I find one variable that interests me, it often helps to look at the variables around that variable. It is like finding a book in a library; once you found it, it is often very useful to also quickly scan the other books on the same shelf. Here is an example:

. closedesc smsa

Variable      Storage   Display    Value
    name         type    format    label      Variable label
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
grade           byte    %8.0g                 Current grade completed
collgrad        byte    %16.0g     gradlbl    College graduate
south           byte    %9.0g      southlbl   Lives in the south
smsa            byte    %9.0g      smsalbl    Lives in SMSA
c_city          byte    %16.0g     ccitylbl   Lives in a central city
industry        byte    %23.0g     indlbl     Industry
occupation      byte    %22.0g     occlbl     Occupation