Create local macro already with double quotataion marks

[Junran Cao]

Dear Statalist

I would like to create a local macro for an if-condition that already includes double quotation marks (" "). And I would like to ask how I may accomplish this without confusing Stata because of the multiple " " marks. To illustrate what I mean:

sysuse auto, clear
regress price mpg if foreign == "Domestic":origin

In this context, please imagine the if-condition

 if foreign == "Domestic":origin

to be much longer & that I would like to include the actual labels instead of, e.g. foreign == 1, to improve readability for my coauthors.

It would be ideal if I can do something like

 local ifcond = "if foreign == "Domestic":origin" 
regress price mpg `ifcond'

But, as it stands, the multiple " " marks are causing confusion.

Thanks,
Junran

[Andrew Musau]

There is no issue with this:

local ifcond "if foreign == "Domestic":origin"
regress price mpg `ifcond'

[Junran Cao]

Oh I see. Thanks very much Andrew. I had been under the mistaken impression that

 
 local ifcond = "if foreign == "Domestic":origin"

if equivalent to

  
 local ifcond "if foreign == "Domestic":origin"

The former led to a syntax error but the latter, as you point out, works just fine.