Filtering String Variable Data to Isolate Whole Numbers Only

[Julius Doyle]

See Example Data Set:

tab damage_repair_costs

Damage Repair Costs	Freq.
$ 420	800
$690.00	15
$500.00	3
$550	180
$900	4
$799.00	72
40	2
528.00	1
655	6
978.00	7
Amount Too Small	1

So I'm trying to create a copy of the variable "Damage Repair Costs" that ignores everything that isn't just a calculable number; this includes the removal of the unnecessary decimals. (Note: there is an intentional space in the first row.) I don't want to change the original data set, just create a copy variable with all of the desired transformations.

I've tried:

gen damage_repair_costs_transform = damage_repair_costs
destring damage_repair_costs_transform, gen(damage_costs_final) ignore("$" "." ".00" ",")
replace damage_costs_final = . if damage_repair_costs == "Amount Too Small"

But I'm having two issues.

1. Under the command line,

destring damage_repair_costs_transform, gen(damage_costs_final) ignore("$" "." ".00" ",")

I get the following :

damage_repair_costs_transform: contains characters not specified in ignore(); no generate

Additionally, I have an interesting caveat here. I want to be able to ignore spaces (e.g. $ 420), but not treating them exactly the same. Where there's a space in this first data point, I want to replace "Amount Too Small" with a "." -- but both have spaces.

2. Under the command line,

replace damage_costs_final = . if damage_repair_costs == "Amount Too Small"

I get the following:

type mismatch
r(109);

What am I doing wrong here? How can I get this data to be reduced to just whole numbers?

Please keep in mind that this question does not reflect exactly what data I am truly working with, but is a fairly accurate recreation of it for what it is that I am trying to learn to do.

[Clyde Schechter]

clonevar wanted = damagerepaircosts
replace wanted = "." if trim(itrim(wanted)) == "Amount Too Small"
destring wanted, replace ignore("$" " ")
replace wanted = int(wanted)