Replace String Observations with String Observations

[James Voss]

This is basic and I'm getting something wrong.

Goal:
If the response in the variable "Type" is "Other",
then replace the word "Other" in the variable "Type" with the response in the variable "Type_if_Other"


Data Sample:

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input int Plan str53 Type str22 Type_if_Other
   1 "Other"                                                 "Unknown"               
   4 "PPO"                                                   ""                      
  27 "Other"                                                 "QHDHP w/ HRA"          
 189 "Other"                                                 "PPO w/FSA"             
 885 "Other"                                                 "EPO"                                     
1052 "Other"                                                 "non-qualified HDHP PPO"
1787 "PPO"                                                   ""                      
1803 "PPO"                                                   ""                      
end

Based on code that has worked in the past using numeric data, I've tried

replace Type = Type_if_Other if Type == "Other"

for which Stata responds with

varlist required
r(100);


I've serached Statalist for previous questions and responses, but those seem to need to use destring, etc. In this case, I want to keep the string as a string.
I've looked at the "24 Working with Strings," and it doesn't address replacing a string with a string (as far as I can tell).

Thanks for any guidance you can give.

[Rich Goldstein]

there must be something else going on that you are not telling us because this worked fine for me:

. replace Type = Type_if_Other if Type == "Other"
(5 real changes made)

[James Voss]

Ah! Thank you, Rich Goldstein! I don't know what else was going on, but it must have been something elsewhere in the foreach loop (of which this is one step).

There was a second "replace" at the end of the foreach ( code: save "`file'", replace), but I hadn't changed that code at all.

After you confirmed that string replace (above) was working, I reopened the file, reentered the string replace command, and the code ran without a hitch.

I don't know what I must have unknowingly changed elsewhere in that foreach loop, but knowing the string replacement code worked helped me stop trying to fix what was not broken! Phew.
thanks.