problem with destring

[Guest]

Dear Stata experts,

I downloaded Excel file. In some rows where is no data there is "NA". Here is my data example:

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str4 period double(ExportsfromAustraliatoAustri C D) str17 E double(F G) str17 H double I str2 J
"1967" 1.68818291542382  .447193126169174   .254802440348146 "NA"                  .192390685821028  1.24098978925465 "1.23267336787171"  .00831642138294219 "NA"
"1968" 1.37783875343941  .255840493746482  .0766597683580703 "NA"                  .179180725388411  1.12199825969293 "1.08881040737231"   .0331878523206176 "NA"
"1969" 2.14021372461828  .328313422978159     .1290259660822 ".0011185009753137"   .198168955920645  1.81190030164012 "1.71011616406372"    .101784137576401 "NA"
"1970" 1.37254388532754  .192041412896288   .103648950063559 ".0014473268885849"  .0869451359441442  1.18050247243126 "1.09869892846481"   .0818035439664519 "NA"
"1971" 1.07272091518585  .376749961389412   .150304925135887 ".0043821532603898"   .222062882993135  .695970953796438 ".635863227046547"    .060107726749892 "NA"
"1972" 1.03049032659761  .170154750132609  .0467655443634626 ".0040929481760718"   .119296257593075  .860335576464996 ".6237951254248409"   .236540451040155 "NA"
"1973" 1.10660073292803  .554202972554974   .042445121273776 ".0147793837375182"    .49697846754368  .552397760373058 ".0573032191211405"   .495094541251917 "NA"
"1974" .619402162186426  .110295313069868 .00421017570778895 ".0033361329234095"    .10274900443867  .509106849116558 ".279385949993835"    .229720899122722 "NA"
"1975" .862150009789141  .457623355172952   .173436807927162 ".005716531769577"    .278470015476213   .40452665461619 ".185512721799737"    .219013932816453 "NA"
"1976" 1.17399480567722   .18227499023391  .0899267099507063 ".0074502711364507"   .084898009146753  .991719815443311 ".0138014496636041"   .977918365779707 "NA"
"1977"  1.0596683294864  .252186446517037  .0971412808940711 ".0175952383069712"   .137449927315995  .807481882969366 "NA"                  .807481882969366 "NA"
"1978" 2.74407206961562  .326298100332131   .226576840094671 ".0082933268536468"  .0914279333838132  2.41777396928349 "1.78836960318622"     .62940436609727 "NA"
"1979" 2.43123089502343  .356706683016324   .236905414894377 ".0301890470330195"  .0896122210889276  2.07452421200711 "1.8339683632572"     .240555848749909 "NA"
"1980" 3.73198211321387  .446112989371622   .141884411694923 ".023741354288482"    .280487223388216  3.28586912384225 "2.66611877600431"    .619750347837939 "NA"
"1981" 2.86560192580854   .11650479750537 .00505486422107316 ".0256636617808451"  .0857862715034518  2.74909712830317 "2.15416632696175"    .594930801341411 "NA"
"1982" 2.46898937574441 .0681212756305846  .0409741067841663 ".0229692068236075"  .0041779620228108  2.40086810011382 "1.72690909535871"    .673959004755113 "NA"
"1983" 1.85716024628491  .171121272324057   .130544004006761 ".0077711427433588"  .0328061255739369  1.68603897396085 "1.19175684073928"     .49428213322157 "NA"
"1984" 1.89950961141022   .55082007656801   .395247194341352 "NA"                  .155572882226658  1.34868953484221 ".881702543621684"    .466986991220526 "NA"
"1985" 6.74099973156501  4.51314312672418   4.32899960820237 ".0331840324351902"   .150959486086617  2.22785660484083 "1.61705380051119"    .610802804329642 "NA"
"1986"  2.6416032194799  .922339003082142   .765309045323289 ".0230991871640027"    .13393077059485  1.71926421639776 "1.1863779696994"     .532886246698352 "NA"
"1987" 3.50108724040966  1.00879296806758   .666709174063678 ".0338925172702406"   .308191276733661  2.49229427234208 "1.41205142749612"    1.08024284484596 "NA"
"1988" 5.89184415767255  4.87417369147086   4.32603952670905 ".0309162835204018"   .517217881241407  1.01767046620168 ".210563597502116"    .807106868699568 "NA"
"1989" 2.10293175939197  1.11200655142119   .945336338903254 ".0364085343299939"   .130261678187945  .990925207970772 ".0316882212792983"   .959236986691474 "NA"
"1990" 3.09566901071224   .57895066182819   .294643535250431 ".0593818650269951"   .224925261550764  2.51671834888405 ".0291394062259312"   2.48757894265812 "NA"
"1991"  4.5952602023237  2.25751780793534   2.11941353857843 ".0506122384234352"  .0874920309334809  2.33774239438835 ".0126623620892795"   2.32508003229908 "NA"
"1992"  5.2282254216153  3.62389907526694    3.2407176217882 ".156218000188867"    .226963453289869  1.60432634634836 ".129686962949035"    1.47463938339932 "NA"
"1993" 3.60528197241182  2.27059248575925   2.15936564523635 ".0440518674912489"  .0671749730316509  1.33468948665257 ".0175523209796626"   1.31713716567291 "NA"
"1994" 4.20129878529848  2.61912210318222   2.48602899558369 ".0897388701919393"  .0433542374065943  1.58217668211626 ".0396183580856388"   1.54255832403062 "NA"
"1995" 1.66267308728776  .718284669540413   .601226761357698 ".0763861976604632"  .0406717105222516  .944388417747347 "NA"                  .944388417747347 "NA"
"1996" 1.67174006197263  .782547191550645   .713766766181845 ".0226147164761684"  .0461657088926319  .889192870421989 ".0068648019715908"   .882328068450398 "NA"
"1997" 1.46324874669685  1.14965136733421   1.02237855424437 ".0162570073507562"   .111015805739078  .313597379362646 "NA"                  .313597379362646 "NA"
"1998" 1.49118616589432  1.33347393623139   1.17672043293244 ".126269767485836"   .0304837358131181  .157712229662932 ".0037474515003959"   .153964778162536 "NA"
"1999" .797078970751392   .71046188236338   .620047433227721 ".0772284463703214"  .0131860027653374 .0866170883880116 "NA"                 .0866170883880116 "NA"
"2000" .685350935246251  .614281599995358   .548381828240676 ".0590893523680979" .00681041938658401 .0710693352508932 ".0022994950223443"  .0687698402285489 "NA"
"2001" .790855012105365  .575420760492461   .517316716681913 ".0434616679209898"  .0146423758895586  .215434251612903 ".0032128958372724"   .212221355775631 "NA"
"2002" .678040814956461  .572556585585948   .481116637902978 ".0533440622037423"  .0380958854792272  .105484229370513 "NA"                  .105484229370513 "NA"
"2003" .962200827340452  .648574348691287   .387374677722107 ".174542912918566"   .0866567580506144  .313626478649164 "NA"                  .313626478649164 "NA"
"2004" .539462037877982   .46406333019581   .289660600577625 ".0960438231260797"   .078358906492105 .0753987076821722 "NA"                 .0753987076821722 "NA"
"2005" .829157935583996  .501237842646939  .0739293580848232 ".198353245480259"    .228955239081856  .327920092937058 ".0044760758878302"   .323444017049227 "NA"
"2006" .892993578681696  .297647331955208  .0716496026031399 ".154609313711333"   .0713884156407351  .595346246726488 "NA"                  .595346246726488 "NA"
"2007"  1.1831879757206  .330713317689642  .0790955954086102 ".188937995410851"   .0626797268701809  .852474658030954 "NA"                  .852474658030954 "NA"
"2008" .722686752070487  .254740682283988  .0355505518170268 ".0736625387465388"   .145527591720423  .467946069786498 ".0681353266478771"   .399810743138621 "NA"
"2009" 1.25267905943902  .785066710532028  .0507452481777911 ".529209776576246"    .205111685777991  .467612348906992 "NA"                  .467612348906992 "NA"
"2010" 1.33814239274765  .687448088730707   .101268940320203 ".211859216032929"    .374319932377575  .650694304016942 "NA"                  .650694304016942 "NA"
"2011" 1.89234563458849  .981591215438803   .263935645697609 ".38498013940013"     .332675430341064  .910754419149686 "NA"                  .910754419149686 "NA"
"2012"  1.4661200700721  .764122338527107   .194755663981232 ".135434932164803"    .433931742381071  .701997731544994 ".0093917801338615"   .692605951411133 "NA"
"2013" 1.73105339685472  1.04842663639813   .330930068599616 ".0609117081286965"   .656584859669814   .68262676045659 "NA"                   .68262676045659 "NA"
"2014" 1.25397735481203  .851379333036416   .147158715256268 ".108021829853592"    .596198787926557  .402598021775617 "NA"                  .402598021775617 "NA"
"2015" 1.75072124689188  1.39002801113872   .454976523638499 ".0571724831827264"   .877879004317496  .360693235753163 ".0010879831275599"   .359605252625603 "NA"
"2016" 1.00536622930604  .584672332418586   .149590925095184 ".195573416796196"    .239507990527205  .420693896887459 ".0013535368543057"   .419340360033154 "NA"
end

My idea was to replace "NA" with "." and then destring. Due to the fact that I have 790 variables it is time consuming and error yielding to tell stata which columns it should take into account. I tried it with a loop:

foreach x of varlist J-AD AF-AG AJ-AP AT AV-BP BT-CX CZ-DN DQ-EA EC-EE EH-EW EY-FB FD FH-FI FK-FM FO-GA GC-GD GG-GU GW-HD HF-HI HL-HW HY-HZ IB-IC IG-JC JK JM-JN JR-KG KI-KJ KN-KO KQ-KR KW KY-LE LG-LS LW-MN MP-NA NC-NQ NJ-NV NX-NY OA-OD OG-OH OK-OU OW-OX PB-PE PG PK PN-PO PT-PX PZ-QD QF-QG QJ-QQ QS-QT QW-QX RA RC-RG RI-RL RO-RZ SB-SC SF-SH SJ-TE TN TP-UJ UL-UM UQ-UR UT-UV VB VE-VH VJ VM VS-W WC WV-WX XB-XC XH-XJ XM-XT XX YA-YB YF-YG YJ YS-YX ZG-ZH ZN ZQ ZW AAA AAM-AAR AAZ-ABA ABF ABI-ABJ ABL-ABO ABT-ABW ABZ-ACC ACI ACM-ADA ADO ADF-ADH{
     replace `x'="." if `x'=="NA"
 }

but got an error message r(111) variables out of order.

I checked it once again but didn't find my error

Is it possible to write a loop for all variables and stata would change it only for string variables so that it wouldn't be type mismatch. I tried this command:

foreach x of varlist C-ADJ{
     replace `x'="." if `x'=="NA",string
 }

Or is there any other way to destring my variables without replacing "NA" ?

[Hemanshu Kumar]

destring C-ADJ, replace ignore("NA")

[Guest]

Thank you Hemanshu for your kind help!