Hello everybody,

i have to summarize the shapes of a string variable.

Background:
I have a Variable for the Country of birth. The interviewed can write their state of birth in a open Question. This have the consequences that I have a lot of differnt answers with the same meaning.

Example:

germani 1
germa 1
germany 1

Question:
Can stata regconize that the beginnings of the word are the same and how can i summarize the differents shapes with the same Meaning?

best regrads,
Fritzi