st: Can Stata read string variables without stripping blanks?

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

Hello all

Does Stata have a way of reading string variables in fixed format without 
stripping leading and trailing blanks? I ask because, if I type

infix line1 1-80 using intext.ado,clear

then I find that the variable -line1- which is created contains the first 
80 characters of each line of -intext.ado- minus any leading and trailing 
blanks. I would like it to contain the first 80 characters of each line of 
-intext.ado- including leading and trailing blanks (The file -intext.ado- 
is in fact a Stata program file with indentations.) What I am looking for 
is a kind of inverse to the -runtogether- option in -outfile- that was 
provided in response to a thread I started in 2001 re writing program 
generators in Stata. (Thanks again to the people at StataCorp for 
responding so promptly).

I realise that there might be a very long-winded solution to this problem 
using the -file- command to read the file as a binary file byte by byte and 
to build up the variable -line1- byte by byte using a series of statements 
of the form

replace line1=line1+`"`curbyte'"' in `i1'

(assuming that the macro -curbyte- contains the most recently read byte and 
that the macro -i1- contains an observation sequence number). However, I 
was wondering whether there was a simpler way.

I tried the option of using -file- to read the file line by line as an 
ASCII file. However, the problem there is that -file- stores each line in a 
macro. If the line is stored in a macro named -curline-, and the sequence 
number of the current line of the file is stored in a macro named -i1-, and 
I type

replace line1=`"`curline'"' in `i1'

then Stata resolves any macro references in the value of -curline-.

I suspect that life would be easier if there was a string function named 
-local- which delivered the value of a local macro. Then I might type

replace line1=local("curline") in `i1'

and the variable -line1- would then contain the value of the macro 
-curline- in one observation, without any macro substitutions. However, I 
can't find any reference to a function like the hypothetical -local-, 
either in the Stata manuals or in the on-line help.

Best wishes (and thanks in advance for any help)

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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