Include quotation marks when writing a file

[Richard Williams]

I know this is Stata 101 but I'm not finding the answer. With this line,

 file write `out' "semdata <- read_dta(`outputfilename')" _n

I want the outputfilename enclosed in quotation marks, e.g. I want a line written like

semdata <- read_dta("C:\Dropbox\Testprogs/ltry.dta")

but instead I get

semdata <- read_dta(C:\Dropbox\Testprogs/ltry.dta)

There must be some easy way to do this, but I don't know what it is.

[Daniel Bela]

Hi Richard,

I think this is the exact scenario compound double quotes have been introduced for; try this:

file write `out' `"semdata <- read_dta("`outputfilename'")"' _n

Regards
Bela

[Richard Williams]

Thanks! Worked like a charm. I figured it was something like that but I wasn't keeping all the quote marks straight.

I still had a problem though, because the program that was reading the file written out doesn't like \ (forward slashes). My solution was to add this line first:

local outputfilename = subinstr("`outputfilename'", "\", "/", 999)

The line then written out was

semdata <- read_dta("C:/Dropbox/Testprogs/ltry.dta")

There may be something more elegant but it works

[William Lisowski]

Your fix is about as elegant as I can think of, although

local outputfilename = subinstr("`outputfilename'", "\", "/", .)

(using a missing value rather than a large number for the fourth argument) will be definition replace all values, although I don't think I've ever seen a filesystem 999 levels deep in subdirectories.

[Clyde Schechter]

William Lisowski I tend to run my file systems deep, with relatively few files at each level. Lots of hierarchy. I've never really come close to 999 levels. I can tell you that in Windows and in those varieties of Unix that I have used (not many), you can't get to 999 depth even if you want to because long before that you run up against a limit on the length of a full pathname.

That said, using missing value for the final argument in -subinstr()- does make a lot of sense, and is more likely to be what is actually intended than some large specific number.

[Richard Williams]

Thanks for pointing out I could use a period instead of 999. My code is now two characters shorter. ;-)

Thanks to everybody -- these are pretty easy fixes but it would have probably taken hours to figure them out by myself.