Trying to save collapsed files - invalid file specification error

[Jack Mann]

Hello,

I am trying to collapse all files in a folder and replace the old files with the new ones. Stata seems to be having trouble with the code to save and replace the collapsed files. Here is what I have written so far:

local files : dir "E:\Data3" files "*.dta"
 
cd "E:\Data3"

foreach file in `files' {
        use `file’, clear
        collapse (mean) tMin tMax prec, by (dateNum fips_code)
        save, replace
}

Stata returns:

invalid file specification
r(198);

I think the error has something to do with trying to save a file after it has been collapsed. I have tried to collapse just one file, which works, but when I try to save it I get the same error.

Thank you.

[Justin Niakamal]

I think

save, replace

should be

 save `file', replace

[William Lisowski]

A careful reading of the output of help save surprises me with the information that the filename is indeed optional: the current filename will be substituted if none is given.

The problem, then, is that help collapse describes the command as

collapse converts the dataset in memory into a dataset of means, sums, medians, etc.

and, implicitly, Stata considers the collapsed dataset a new, and thus unnamed dataset, and so, as Justin suggests in post #2, you must specify the output dataset name.