Putdocx and returning the first observation of a string variable

[Tamika Fellows]

Hi there,

I am working with putdocx and would like to return the first observation of a string value in putdocx text ().
For example, I have a variable, facility, with string values and I would like to return the first observation, "facility a", text in a sentence like below:
"At facility a you will need to conduct xx interviews". I have tried using scalar expressions like "scalar sdp=substr(facility,1,40)" but those seem to only work for numeric or missing values and I cannot return the result in putdocx text.

Is there a way I could do this with the following dataset?

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str40 facility
"facility a"
"facility b"
"facility c"
end

Thanks so much!

[Andrew Musau]

You need to hold the contents of a string in a local macro.

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str40 facility
"facility a"
"facility b"
"facility c"
end

local text "`=facility[1]'"
di "`text'"

Res.:

. di "`text'"
facility a

In the putdocx command, you will then have something like:

putdocx paragraph
putdocx text ("At `text', I conducted XX interviews")
...

For more on locals, see https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10....36867X20931028.

[Tamika Fellows]

Thanks so much. This worked perfectly.