Variable renames in a loop

[Francesco Milano]

Hi to all,
I have a list of variables: ita_a01_02, ita_a03, ita_b05_06 and ita_b07_08

Does anyone know how to generate the following variables in a loop?
ita_1 for ita_a01_02
ita_2 for ita_a03
ita_3 for ita_b05_06
ita_4 for ita_b07_08

Add to this that I would like to repeat it also with a loop on a similar list of variables (bel_a01_02 bel_a03 bel_b05_06 bel_b07_08), from which i would like to get bel_1, ..., bel_4.

Thank you.
Francesco

[Nick Cox]

That's not in essence a loop problem as you can do in one line as

rename (ita_a01_02 ita_a03 ita_b05_06  ita_b07_08) (ita_#), addnumber

or possibly as

rename (ita*) (ita_#), addnumber

I dare say you could loop over

foreach pre in ita bel {
rename `pre'* `pre'_#, addnumber
}

More general solutions depend on what other variables you do or do not have (and so on whether wild cards match too much).

But replacing two lines with a loop and three lines isn't obvious gain. Also true that you don't learn the technique that can be really helpful for larger problems except by learning it on small problems.

[Francesco Milano]

Dear Nick it, the looo works perfectly. My example was on few variables, actually I have 45 x 77 variables (77 countries and 45 industries), so the gain, as your solution, is great!