st: Using "stata" command from Mata

[David Bell <d.n.f.bell@stir.ac.uk>]

In Mata, I am writing a function to put together a string to supply to the "stata" command. It goes something like this:
void table::read_spreadsheet()

{
                string scalar temp
                temp = "`" + `"""' + "imp excel " + `"""' + this.path + this.workbook + ".xlsx" + `"""' + `"""' + "'"
                temp 
                stata(temp)

}

I suspect there are more efficient ways of constructing "temp", but I do know that executing "stata(temp)" in interactive mode works after I have constructed it as in the second line of my code. However, when I try to execute the function as part of a program, it seems to me that "temp" is abridged to 32 characters in the "stata" command after having been listed correctly in the previous line. i.e. my output from lines 3 and 4 is:


  `"import excel "C:\Users\DavidNFBell\Dropbox\spreadsheet.xlsx""'                                                  - output of correctly formed string
unrecognized command:  "import excel "C:\Users\DavidNFB invalid command name                      - error message indicating failure to execute stata(temp) command
stata():  3598  Stata returned error

I would be grateful if anyone could explain this/suggest an alternative

David Bell

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