Extracting the first part of a string occurring before the first comma

[Meghan Bezerra]

Hello

I have data as below:

clear
inp str199 precinct
"North Allowton North, North Allowton Elementary, 1139 Corner Rd, Linville, PA 19333"
"LN 2, Township Building, 3298 Center Dr, Uppertown, PA"
"South 1 & 2, Dallingford Elementary, 422 S Long St, Chesterfield, PA"
end

I'm trying to separate and create a new variable from the first part of the string before the first comma, so:

North Allowton North
LN 2
South 1 & 2

I found a post (https://www.statalist.org/forums/for...=1729853922649) that seeks to get the last part of the string after the comma, but I couldn't figure out how to adapt that for my purposes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Meghan

[Maarten Buis]

. split precinct, parse(",") generate(part)
variables created as string:
part1  part2  part3  part4  part5

. list

     +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  1. |                                                                            precinct |                part1 |
     | North Allowton North, North Allowton Elementary, 1139 Corner Rd, Linville, PA 19333 | North Allowton North |
     |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
     |                          part2     |               part3     |             part4      |         part5      |
     |      North Allowton Elementary     |      1139 Corner Rd     |          Linville      |      PA 19333      |
     +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

     +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  2. |                                                                            precinct |                part1 |
     |                              LN 2, Township Building, 3298 Center Dr, Uppertown, PA |                 LN 2 |
     |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
     |                          part2     |               part3     |             part4      |         part5      |
     |              Township Building     |      3298 Center Dr     |         Uppertown      |            PA      |
     +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

     +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  3. |                                                                            precinct |                part1 |
     |                South 1 & 2, Dallingford Elementary, 422 S Long St, Chesterfield, PA |          South 1 & 2 |
     |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
     |                          part2     |               part3     |             part4      |         part5      |
     |         Dallingford Elementary     |       422 S Long St     |      Chesterfield      |            PA      |
     +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Meghan Bezerra]

Wow, way easier than what I was trying - thanks Maarten!

[Nick Cox]

Note that split allows an option limit().

Also

gen wanted = substr(precinct, 1, strpos(precinct, ",") - 1)