concatenate (string + stata date format) issue

[Luis Pecht]

Hi Gurus,

based on the following examples

. local x: di%tw 3290
. di "begin:" "`x'"
begin:2023w15

. local x: di%tw 3227
. di "begin:" "`x'"
begin: 2022w4

why does does the "space" between parts, on the second example , occur?

thks

[Clyde Schechter]

The field defined by "`x'" is right justified and has 7 characters allocated to it. So when the week number is a single digit, it is padded with a blank on the left. If you don't want that, you can change the definition of local macro x to -local x: di%-tw 3227-. Then it will be left-justified and you will get no space there.

[Luis Pecht]

thanks, Prof. Clyde.

. di "begin:" "`:di%tw 3227'"
begin: 2022w4

. di "begin:" "`:di%-tw 3227'"
begin:2022w4