Replacing/removing punctuation in string variable?

[Titir Bhattacharya]

Hi all,

I'm stuck on what I think is a very simple issue of replacing certain parts of a string with some other character. I have a bunch of punctuation like ",","/" etc and I'm trying to remove them or replace them. Please consider the following code:

foreach var of varlist A B C D E{
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', ".", "",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "-", "",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', ";", "",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "(", "",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', ")", "",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', ",", "",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', ".", "",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "/", " OR ",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', ">", "GREATER THAN ",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "=>", "GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO ",.)
replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "K/", "KGs PER",.)
}

Rest of the loop works fine, but when it comes to

replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "=>", "GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO ",.)

the result becomes weird because of

replace `var' = subinstr(`var', ">", "GREATER THAN ",.)

where "=" part of "=>" is worked by the latter code.

Similar problem for

replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "/", " OR ",.)

and

replace `var' = subinstr(`var', "K/", "KGs PER",.)

where "/" part of "K/" is worked by former code.

Any way to resolve this issue?

Thanks,

[Nick Cox]

Hereabouts ">=" is "greater than or equal to", but replace that with words before you try to replace ">". And work on "K/" before "/".

[Titir Bhattacharya]

Hereabouts ">=" is "greater than or equal to", but replace that with words before you try to replace ">". And work on "K/" before "/".

thanks this worked