Loading datasets using a loop with an inconsistent naming scheme

[Helder Costa]

Hi!
If I have a series of datasets called "data_1.dta"; "data_2.dta"; ..., "data_n.dta", where "n", is an arbitrary large number, I can load and clean them, with something like:

foreach x of numlist 1/n {
use data_`x', clear

(cleaning data code here)

save clean_data_`x', replace

}

But in the problem I'm facing now, the names of the datasets have some text after the number, which is irrelevant, at least for this. So, an example would: "data_1_qwerty.dta"; "data_2_asdfg.dta", "data_3_zxcvc.dta", for a large number of datasets. I should add that I don't permissions to edit the names of the datasets, so the only solution I'm seeing is loading them up one by one. The number schemes are consistent, thus I was wondering if there was a way of programming Stata to ignore the rest of the name.

Thanks!
Hélder

[Nick Cox]

local files : dir . files "data*.dta"

will put the names into a local macro which you can loop over with foreach.

For a convenience wrapper see fs from SSC.

[Helder Costa]

Thank you, it worked!