and as a lesson, next time you are doing an experiment, don't place
any "header" information in the datafile.
If you need additional information related to the setup of the
experiment, to the subject, etc, have it in a separate file, and carry
an experimentID in your data files. Proper data organization from the
start will keep you from frustration later on.
Sergiy
On Feb 18, 2008 1:25 PM, n j cox <[email protected]> wrote:
> No, think about it: a user-written program for input would have to be
> written at a fairly low level, as how could you e.g. refer to variables
> that don't yet exist? You need something that reads in a line at a time.
> It could be done in Mata, it could be done with a plug-in, and it could
> be done with -file-, possibly, but a user-programmer would have to
> re-create a lot of tedious but essential parsing of lines, consistency
> checking, and so forth. Not to mention flushing buffers and similar
> horrors.
>
> I think it is much, much easier to go the obvious way -- to filter the
> file so that what is left behind is then amenable to one of the input
> commands. You are resisting that conclusion, but I think it is inescapable.
>
> In Stata, this seems to call for something using -file-.
>
> In Unix -- and by extension in Windows too, as ports aplenty can be
> found -- this seems to call for something like sed, awk, or perl.
>
> Here is a demonstration program. Unix adepts will love to point out how
> this is very long-winded compared with one of the utilities mentioned
> above.
>
> To see how it works, create a -test.txt- with lines 1 to 7 containing
> those numbers.
>
> striplines test.txt, outfile(test2.txt) keep(3/7)
> type test2.txt
> striplines test.txt, outfile(test2.txt) replace drop(1/3)
> type test2.txt
>
> *-------------------------------- striplines.ado
> *! 1.0.0 NJC 18 Feb 2008
> * strip lines from ASCII file
> * must specify -out-
> * must specify -keep()- or -drop()-
> * may specify -replace-
> program striplines
> version 8.2
> syntax anything(name=infile) , outfile(str) ///
> [replace keep(numlist) drop(numlist) ]
>
> if "`keep'" != "" & "`drop'" != "" {
> di as err "specify keep() or drop()"
> exit 198
> }
> if "`keep'" == "" & "`drop'" == "" {
> di as err "specify keep() or drop()"
> exit 198
> }
>
> // filenames and handles
> tempname hi ho
> file open `hi' using `"`infile'"', r
> file open `ho' using `"`outfile'"', w `replace'
>
> local i = 1
>
> if "`keep'" != "" {
> file read `hi' line
> while r(eof) == 0 {
> local tokeep : list i in keep
> if `tokeep' file write `ho' `"`line'"' _n
> file read `hi' line
> local ++i
> }
> }
> else {
> file read `hi' line
> while r(eof) == 0 {
> local todrop : list i in drop
> if !`todrop' file write `ho' `"`line'"' _n
> file read `hi' line
> local ++i
> }
> }
>
> file close `ho'
> di _n `"`outfile' created"'
> end
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
>
> Joseph Wagner
> =============
>
> I can get the file into excel and the columns line up perfectly. If I
> open the file in Crimson editor the columns appear to be tab-delimited
> after all (apparently why I was able to use -insheet-). That said, is
> there a user-written program that I have missed that will perform
> -insheet- like action but with options limiting the data?
>
>
>
> *
> * 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/
>
*
* 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/
