st: Feature of the -inlist- function

[Roger Newson <roger.newson@kcl.ac.uk>]

Hello all

A very minor query  re the -inlist- function. I'm using Stata 7 with 
executable and ado-files as of 11 June 2002. According to -[U] 16.3 
Functions-, the maximum number of arguments to -inlist- is 255 (either all 
reals or all strings). However, for some reason, -inlist- seems to fail for 
me with 6 string arguments. I might type as follows:

. disp inlist("bonferroni","hochberg","simes","yekutieli","krieger")
0

. disp inlist("bonferroni","hochberg","simes","yekutieli","krieger","liu")
expression too long
r(130);

When I click on r(130), I get error diagnostics as follows:

[P]     error  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Return code 130
        expression too long;
        too many SUMs;
        In the first case, you specified an expression that is too long
        for Stata to process -- the expression contains more than 255 pairs
        of nested parentheses or more than 66 dyadic operators.  Break
        the expression into smaller parts.  In the second case, the
        expression contains more than five sum() functions.  This
        expression, too, will have to be broken into smaller parts.

I can't see how 
-inlist("bonferroni","hochberg","simes","yekutieli","krieger","liu")- 
violates any of the limits on nested parentheses or dyadic operators, 
although I know how to break up the expression, eg

disp 
inlist("bonferroni","hochberg","simes")|inlist("bonferroni","yekutieli","krieger","liu")

seems to work, at the price of making the expression a bit more 
long-winded. Is this an unpublicised feature of -inlist-? And does it have 
any consequences apart from making long -inlist- calls a bit longer?

Thanks in advance

Roger

--
Roger Newson
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Department of Public Health Sciences
King's College London
5th Floor, Capital House
42 Weston Street
London SE1 3QD
United Kingdom

Tel: 020 7848 6648 International +44 20 7848 6648
Fax: 020 7848 6620 International +44 20 7848 6620
  or 020 7848 6605 International +44 20 7848 6605
Email: roger.newson@kcl.ac.uk

Opinions expressed are those of the author, not the institution.

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