Concatenate names using loops and egen

[Daniel Akwasi]

Hi All,

Please can someone help me with the stata codes that will concatenate the names provided below.
I have over 500 names and want to make use of the loops and egen commands.

My data is as shown below and my expected results is beneath the data

Thanks for your assistance

Data:

first_name_1 first_name_2 last_name_1 last_name_2
Daniel Joseph Kanyam Mensah
Michael John Kombat Smith

Expected Result:

fullname1 fullname2
Daniel Kanyam Joseph Mensah
Michael Kombat John Smith

[Clyde Schechter]

So something like this:

forvalues j = 1/500 {
egen full_name_`j' = concat(first_name_`j' last_name_`j')
}

That said, a data set with 500 sets of names in wide layout is likely to be unwieldy for any purpose you might put it to. Consider switching over to the long layout, which then enables you to do this with a single command, and probably leaves you with much more usable data anyhow. (Most things in Stata works better in long layout than wide.)

gen obs_no = _n
reshape long first_name_ last_name_, i(obs_no) j(name_no)
egen full_name = concat(first_name_ last_name_)

[Daniel Akwasi]

Many thanks Clyde.I really appreciate your quick response

[Daniel Akwasi]

forvalues j = 1/500 { egen full_name_`j' = concat(first_name_`j' last_name_`j') } Hi Clyde, The code worked perfectly.Thanks once again But what if the names have leading zeros like first_name_01 first_name_02 last_name_01 last name_02 Thanks Dan

[Nick Cox]

Looping over 01, 02, etc. is discussed within http://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.h...iclenum=pr0051

[Daniel Akwasi]

Many thanks Cox.I used the commands in your paper and i don't get any output and i don't get errors either.

Below are my commands


forvalues j = 1/25 {
local i : di %02.0f `j'
display "`j'"
use data`j'
egen full_name_`j' = concat(name_`j' last_name_`j'),p(" ")

}

Thanks

[Clyde Schechter]

Daniel,

I think you've mixed up some i's and j's in your code in #6. You create local i, which correctly contains j rewritten with a leading zero. But then you never use it anywhere else. So it just sits there. I'm not exactly sure from your description where the name_02, etc. variables are, but wherever they are, you need to refer to them in your code with `i', and not with `j'.

[Rhoda Mensah]

Many thanks Nick Cox and Clyde