As a programming tip - you don't need the = sign to assign a string to
a local macro, in fact, it limits the length of the string you can
assign. A string expression can have only 244 characters (-local
bestand = "..."- is a string expression) versus a string macro limit
of 67,784 characters (1,081,511 in SE and MP). In your example there
should be no problem, but if you were to assign a long macrolist to a
macro, you might get bitten.
Also, if you don't want all the output generated by a -set trace on-
for debugging you can surround just the suspect statements.
Alternatively, if you want to check that a macro assignment went as
intended, dropping in a -macro dir- is helpful.
As for the discussion above - I agree with Hendri that it is often
valuable to discuss the debugging process, error messages and their
limits, and the processes one must go through in order to diagnose and
correct one's error(s). We can all learn from these discussions.
DC Elliott
*
* 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/
