Hi All,

I am trying to separate an area name in a dataset so I just have the particular city and not any station/coordinate info. I have used split before, but usually use it to split before a delimiter.

Here is a example of my data:

Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input float monthly str51 name double prcp float(tavg latitude elevation longitude)
645 "ABERDEEN 0.7 WSW, WA US"              2.6900000497698784        . 46.97401    6.1 -123.82332
645 "ABERDEEN 0.9 S, WA US"                  2.90999998152256        .  46.9639    7.9 -123.80592
645 "ABERDEEN 1.6 WSW, WA US"               2.890000009909272        . 46.97211    4.3 -123.84068
645 "ABERDEEN, WA US"                       2.430000051856041        .  46.9658      3  -123.8291
645 "ABERNATHY MOUNTAIN WASHINGTON, WA US"                  0 48.03226    46.35  883.9     -123.1
645 "ACME 0.0 NNE, WA US"                   1.569999998435378        .  48.7175   92.4 -122.20486
645 "ALDER RIDGE WASHINGTON, WA US"                         0 44.77419  46.2733 1371.6   -117.495
645 "ALMIRA 0.2 NNW, WA US"                .07999999821186066        . 47.71303  583.4 -118.94116
645 "ALPINE MEADOWS, WA US"                 5.299999974668026 45.45161    47.78 1066.8     -121.7
645 "ANACORTES 0.8 ESE, WA US"               .630000002682209        . 48.48903   65.5 -122.61165
645 "ANACORTES 0.9 ESE, WA US"             1.5299999993294477        . 48.48629   85.3  -122.6015
645 "ANACORTES 1.3 NW, WA US"              1.1899999976158142        .  48.5046   61.9  -122.6503
645 "ANACORTES 1.7 WNW, WA US"              .9499999769032001        .  48.5017   61.9  -122.6635
645 "ANACORTES 3.0 N, WA US"               1.2300000041723251        .  48.5355   34.1  -122.6265
645 "ANACORTES 4.7 SSW, WA US"              .9700000081211329        .  48.4268  101.5  -122.6576
end
format %tm monthly
I want to keep just the city/CDP name so I can match to fips data I have. Here, I need anything before the first number, or before the state name.

the code I want to use is:

split name, parse(" ") limit(1) gen(place_name)


But I do not know what to put after the space/delimiter to account for three potential issues.
Thank you for your help!

Best,
Josh