st: local and loops

[Matthew White <mwhite@poverty-action.org>]

Hi all,

Using Stata 13 for Windows 7, I'm trying to figure out an interaction
between -local- and loops. Normally when I define a local, multiple,
consecutive internal spaces are preserved. For example:

. local x 1  2

. display strpos("`x'", "  ")
2

Yet when I use the same definition in a loop, the internal spaces are trimmed:

. forvalues i = 1/5 {
  2. local x 1  2
  3. }

. display strpos("`x'", "  ")
0

Have others experienced this before? It's probably rare that this
would bite, but I'm running into such a situation now. Enclosing the
contents of the local by double quotes solves the problem:

. forvalues i = 1/5 {
  2. local x "1  2"
  3. }

. display strpos("`x'", "  ")
2

I'm just so used to dropping these quotes when I don't need them!

Thank you,
Matt

-- 
Matthew White
Senior Project Associate
Innovations for Poverty Action
101 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06510 USA
www.poverty-action.org
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