How to retrieve a part of a string, before a specific symbol?

[Victor Smith]

Does anyone know how to retrieve a part of a string, before a specific symbol?

For example, in the data below,

 
Name

thisisatesSGA123

madSGA1

IKNOWHssswSGA

I would like to get the part before the SGA, and remove the rest:

 
Name

thisisates

mad

IKNOWHsssw

Can anyone help me?

[Nick Cox]

clear
input str42 Name
thisisatesSGA123
madSGA1
IKNOWHssswSGA
end

gen Wanted = substr(Name, 1, strpos(Name, "SGA") - 1)

list

    +-------------------------------+
     |             Name       Wanted |
     |-------------------------------|
  1. | thisisatesSGA123   thisisates |
  2. |          madSGA1          mad |
  3. |    IKNOWHssswSGA   IKNOWHsssw |
     +-------------------------------+

Please use dataex for data examples (as requested of you, e.g., in https://www.statalist.org/forums/for...ch-observation)

[Victor Smith]

Thanks Nick, the -strops- command rocks! And sorry for not using -dataex-, I'll use them next time. Thanks for the kind reminder

[Nick Cox]

Thanks for the thanks, but strpos() is a function, not a command. For more, see e.g. https://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf....iclenum=dm0058