Dear Listers,

I have some trouble reshaping a set of country specific variables that I need to merge with my master panel dataset which is in long format. The orginial using set contains country specific indices about bank regulation and supervision in 4 survey periods (1-4) and is (at least in my view) in wide format (compiled and provided by Barth et al, 2013). Here is where I started:

Code:
clear
input str8 Number str40 Name byte Survey str17(cntry_Albania cntry_Algeria cntry_Angola cntry_Anguilla cntry_AntiguaandBarbuda cntry_Argentina cntry_Armenia)
"I.I"    "secur_act"               1 "1"    "n.a." "n.a." "1"    "1"    "2" "3"
"I.I"    "secur_act"               2 "1"    "2"    "n.a." "1"    "1"    "2" "2"
"I.I"    "secur_act"               3 "1"    "1"    "n.a." "1"    "1"    "1" "1"
"I.I"    "secur_act"               4 "n.a." "n.a." "2"    "n.a." "n.a." "1" "1"
"I.II"   "insur_act"               1 "4"    "n.a." "n.a." "3"    "3"    "2" "3"
"I.II"   "insur_act"               2 "4"    "2"    "n.a." "2"    "2"    "3" "4"
"I.II"   "insur_act"               3 "4"    "4"    "4"    "4"    "4"    "3" "4"
"I.II"   "insur_act"               4 "n.a." "n.a." "2"    "n.a." "n.a." "3" "3"
"I.III"  "real_act"                1 "3"    "1"    "n.a." "4"    "4"    "2" "3"
"I.III"  "real_act"                2 "1"    "1"    "n.a." "2"    "2"    "3" "3"
"I.III"  "real_act"                3 "n.a." "1"    "4"    "4"    "4"    "4" "3"
"I.III"  "real_act"                4 "n.a." "n.a." "2"    "n.a." "n.a." "3" "4"
"I.IV"   "act_restrict[1]"         1 "8"    "n.a." "n.a." "7"    "7"    "6" "9"
"I.IV"   "act_restrict[1]"         2 "6"    "5"    "n.a." "5"    "5"    "8" "9"
"I.IV"   "act_restrict[1]"         3 "7.5"  "6"    "12"   "9"    "9"    "8" "8"
"I.IV"   "act_restrict[1]"         4 "n.a." "n.a." "6"    "n.a." "n.a." "7" "8"
"II.I"   "own_firm"                1 "3"    "n.a." "n.a." "3"    "3"    "1" "2"
"II.I"   "own_firm"                2 "3"    "3"    "n.a." "2"    "2"    "3" "2"
"II.I"   "own_firm"                3 "3"    "4"    "1"    "2"    "2"    "3" "1"
"II.I"   "own_firm"                4 "n.a." "n.a." "3"    "n.a." "n.a." "3" "4"
"II.II"  "firm_own_bank"           1 "2"    "n.a." "n.a." "3"    "3"    "1" "2"
"II.II"  "firm_own_bank"           2 "3"    "1"    "n.a." "2"    "2"    "2" "2"
"II.II"  "firm_own_bank"           3 "n.a." "4"    "n.a." "3"    "3"    "2" "2"
"II.II"  "firm_own_bank"           4 "n.a." "n.a." "n.a." "n.a." "n.a." "1" "2"
"II.III" "Nonbankfin_own_bank (*)" 1 "n.a." "n.a." "n.a." "1"    "1"    "1" "2"
"II.III" "Nonbankfin_own_bank (*)" 2 "1"    "2"    "n.a." "2"    "2"    "2" "2"
"II.III" "Nonbankfin_own_bank (*)" 3 "n.a." "4"    "n.a." "2"    "2"    "2" "2"
"II.III" "Nonbankfin_own_bank (*)" 4 "n.a." "n.a." "n.a." "n.a." "n.a." "1" "2"
"II.IV"  "Overall_restrict (*)"    1 "7.5"  "n.a." "n.a." "7"    "7"    "3" "6"
"II.IV"  "Overall_restrict (*)"    2 "7"    "6"    "n.a." "6"    "6"    "7" "6"
end
The desired format is long, where the respective indices (variable "Name") are transformed to variables that carry information of the index values. I startet with the following approach:

Code:
reshape long cntry_, i(Number Name Survey) j(country) string
sort country Name Survey
rename cntry_ index
The actual structure is ok in respect of the countries, but not in respect of the relevant indices. Because I need to merge the respective indices which are listed as observations in the variable "Name" with the index values as seperate variables, I thought of reshaping the variable "Name" to wide format:

Code:
reshape wide Name, i(Number Survey country) j(index) string
Anyhow, I get an error message saying
Name 7.5 invalid variable name
. Right now, I can't find out what I am doing wrong or if the approach I am following is generally adviceable for my desire. I would therefore appreciate your help.

Best regards,
Julian