obtaining the first three digits

[Wisura Weerathunga]

I have naics codes that have six digits, and I want to get the first three digits in each of them and form a new variable named three_digits

I tried using the "gen threedigit=int(Naics_1/1000)" (this gave me a list of zeros in the newly generated variable)

Looking at answers to similar posts, I used "gen three_digit=substr(naics, 1,2,3)" and it was an Invalid Syntax

Thank you.

[Marcos Almeida]

Welcome to the Stata Forum / Statalist.

Please read the FAQ. There you'll learn how to share data/command/ output.

Below you'll have an example I need to type from scratch:

. input str20 myvar

                    myvar
  1. 123456789
  2. 34523
  3. 55567890
  4. end

. gen threedvar = substr(myvar,1,3)

. list

     +----------------------+
     |     myvar   threed~r |
     |----------------------|
  1. | 123456789        123 |
  2. |     34523        345 |
  3. |  55567890        555 |
     +----------------------+

.

Hopefully that helps.

[Wisura Weerathunga]

Thank you Marcos, This worked perfectly !!

[Marcos Almeida]

Just as a side note: in case the variable is not "string", you may first use - tostring myvar, gen(myvar2) - command and proceed from this point.

[Wisura Weerathunga]

Thanks Marcos, the previous one worked ! it is a string variable