/* LOC.G: procedure to find variable positions corresponding to a list of
          variable character mnemonics for a Gauss dataset
          John Rust, Yale University, March, 1997

   Inputs:   vnames: vector of names whose position numbers are to be returned
            dsnames: list of variable names from a Gauss dataset (getname)

*/


   proc (1)=loc(vnames,dsnames);

   local i,r,vpos;

        r=rows(vnames);
        vpos=zeros(r,1);

        if r > 1;

        i=1;

        do until i > r;

          vpos[i]=maxindc(stof(vnames[i]) .== stof(dsnames));

          if ((vpos[i] == 1) and (stof(vnames[i]) ./= stof(dsnames[1])));
     /*
             "Error in LOC.G: no match for "$+vnames[i];
     */
             vpos[i]=-1;

          endif;

        i=i+1; endo;

        else;

          vpos=maxindc(stof(vnames) .== stof(dsnames));

          if ((vpos == 1) and (stof(vnames) ./= stof(dsnames[1])));
     /*
             "Error in LOC.G: no match for "$+vnames;
     */
             vpos=-1;

          endif;

        endif;

   retp(vpos);

   endp;