Hello,

I've spent the last 3 hours trying to extract various parts of this string variable <mcaseID> - a concatenated variable.

It is supposed to be a 15 character variable. Given variations in the length of the various components of the caseid variable, leading spaces are padded to make up the length of the variable.
Below are examples of mcaseid values

02070014 02
04960020 03
38228 2

as well as an example of data extract

Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input str15 mcaseid int mv001 byte(mv002 mv003)
"       32923 10" 329 23 10
"       32925  1" 329 25  1
"       32925  2" 329 25  2
"       330 1  1" 330  1  1
"       330 5  1" 330  5  1
"       330 5  4" 330  5  4
"       330 5  5" 330  5  5
"       330 5  7" 330  5  7
end

With the padded zeros, the mcaseid is a concatenation of 3 separate constituent variables:

mv001 = first 8 digits
mv002= next 4 digits
mv003= final 3 digits/characters

Now, I want to extract these v1, v2, v3 variables. I have tried various commands to no avail.

Code:
gen mcaseid2=mcaseid

. destring mcaseid2, gen(mcaseidn)
mcaseid2: contains nonnumeric characters; no generate

. nsplit mcaseid2, digits(8 4 3) gen(v1 v2 v3)
string variables not allowed in varlist;
mcaseid2 is a string variable
r(109);

. destring mcaseid2, gen(mcaseidn)
caseid2: contains nonnumeric characters; no generate

. gen mcaseidn = real(mcaseid2)
(395,286 missing values generated)

gen caseidn=mod(mcaseid, 10000)
type mismatch
The destring command wouldn't work - giving me nonnumeric character error. I tried converting the mcaseid to numeric with the hope of trying other commands such as nsplit, but that was not successful either. The real function for example resulted in all missing values for the generated mcaseid variable.

So I am totally lost.... i would very much appreciate some assistance.

Thanks - cY