Can't view or drop notes on variables because of "too few quotes" error?

[Daniel Ram]

I inherited a data set with notes on the variables. Long story short when I try to see notes attached to some of the variables I get the error message "too few quotes." When I try to drop the notes I get the same error, so I can't even attach my own notes to these variables!
How can I drop these bad notes? Is there a way to find a replace in the text of the notes to get rid of all parentheses and quotes in the notes? Am I simply stuck with variables that can't display the notes attached to them?

Edit:
Here is my code:

notes respmarital

When I try to drop the note I use the code:

drop notes respmarital

In both cases I get the error: "Too few quotes"

[Nick Cox]

Show us your syntax, please. I would put more probability on there being some small problem with what you typed than on the notes being inaccessible.

[Nick Cox]

drop notes respmarital 

is the syntax you would use to

 drop

variables with those names. The syntax would start notes drop

I would start with just

notes

Otherwise I can agree that that error message is puzzling.

[Daniel Ram]

Show us your syntax, please. I would put more probability on there being some small problem with what you typed than on the notes being inaccessible.

Alright, I added the syntax above. I believe the issue is that some notes have the character `` in them...I am confused as to how they got there in the first place but those characters seem to be what are causing the problem.

[Red Owl]

Wouldn't the code to drop be the following?

notes drop respmarital

Red Owl
Stata/IC 16.0 (Windows 10, 64-bit)

[William Lisowski]

I am hopeful that

char respmarital[note1]

will do the job, assuming that respmarital has just a single note attached.

Or more generally, the following code functions much like notes drop.

. notes x

x:
  1.  one
  2.  two

. char list x[]
  x[note2]:                   two
  x[note0]:                   2
  x[note1]:                   one

. local c : char x[]

. display "`c'"
note2 note0 note1

. foreach ch of local c {
  2. char x[`ch']
  3. }

. notes x

.

The problem with notes drop - having looked at the output of viewsource notes.ado - is that it reviews the value of each possible note to ensure it exists and to add 1 to the counter of notes dropped. The odd quotation mark(s) apparently confuse the do-file when the note text is placed into a local macro.

[Daniel Ram]

I am hopeful that

char respmarital[note1]

will do the job, assuming that respmarital has just a single note attached.

Or more generally, the following code functions much like notes drop.

. notes x

x:
1. one
2. two

. char list x[]
x[note2]: two
x[note0]: 2
x[note1]: one

. local c : char x[]

. display "`c'"
note2 note0 note1

. foreach ch of local c {
2. char x[`ch']
3. }

. notes x

.

The problem with notes drop - having looked at the output of viewsource notes.ado - is that it reviews the value of each possible note to ensure it exists and to add 1 to the counter of notes dropped. The odd quotation mark(s) apparently confuse the do-file when the note text is placed into a local macro.

That does work for me. Thank you!
I worked around this by copying and renaming all the variables but this is much more elegant.

[William Lisowski]

Thanks for closing the loop. I was unable to generate a note to cause the problem, so it's good to know my inferences were correct.

As to the elegance of my code, it's hard to find elegance in what is essentially a hack to overcome what is essentially non-robust code. A member of my dissertation committee referred to a similar process as "making a sow's purse from a sow's ear". (Luckily he was not referring to my dissertation itself.)

(For those who perhaps find these sows unfamiliar, the usual metaphor is "making a silk purse from a sow's ear" to describe achieving a result far better than the input would lead you to expect.)

[William Lisowski]

With a little thought, I realized that the char command allows me to construct a reproducible example of the problem in post #1. I will forward this along to Stata Technical Services.

. notes x : quarter

. char list x[]
  x[note1]:                   quarter
  x[note0]:                   1

. notes list x

x:
  1.  quarter

. char x[note1] note with a ` left single quote

. char list x[]
  x[note1]:                   note with a ` left single quote
  x[note0]:                   1

. notes list x
too few quotes
r(132);

. notes drop x
too few quotes
r(132);