Re: st: RE: syntax; option real & varname

[David Kantor <dkantor@jhu.edu>]

Thanks to Nick Winter for his suggestion.  I did think of that method as 
well.  Both are similar in that you test it once as a variable and once as 
a number -- in either order, doing the second test if the first fails.  I 
was just wondering if I was overlooking some other simpler possibility.

-- David

At 09:46 AM 8/15/2002 -0400, you wrote:

> [...]
> I would get x1 as a string, and then test it after your syntax line:
>
>    syntax , x1(string)
>
>    capture confirm new variable `x1'
>    if _rc {
>       confirm number `x1'
>       if _rc {
>          di as error "x1() must be a new variable name or a number"
>          error 198
>       }
>       else {
>          local isvar 0
>         }
>    }
>    else {
>       local isvar 1
>    }
> [...]
David Kantor
Institute for Policy Studies
Johns Hopkins University
dkantor@jhu.edu
410-516-5404

*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/