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st: RE: A couple of file command questions for writing a .tex program


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   st: RE: A couple of file command questions for writing a .tex program
Date   Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:26:37 +0100

The meta-reply is to rummage in [U] as these matters are explained
carefully and fully there. The kind of programming you are doing is
fiddly and you need a decent source by your hand and preferably
transferred to your brain. 

In essence, you need compound double quotes `" "' (hereafter c.d.q.)
whenever you are nesting double quotes " " as the latter are ambiguous.
But c.d.q. do no harm if they are not needed. 

An example of the problem is "a"b"c". Is this 

"a"

followed by 

b

followed by 

"c"

Or is it 

"b"

nested within a string that starts "a and ends c". You may know what you
mean but Stata hasn't a chance because a beginning " and an ending " are
of course exactly the same symbol. However c.d.q. are clearly different
as `" and "' are distinguishable by programmer and machine alike. Each
c.d.q. is logically a single symbol although typed as two (same story as
>=, <=, !=, etc.). 

In essence too: if you mean $ to indicate anything other than a global
macro symbol you must escape it with \. That's not an absolute as Stata
manages to be a bit smart about e.g. $10 which is what this email would
cost you at a decent consultancy rate. 

Nick 
[email protected] 


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thomas Jacobs
Sent: 16 April 2009 20:14
To: StataList
Subject: st: A couple of file command questions for writing a .tex
program

Fellow listers,

I am trying to learn to write Latex files from Stata/Mata with the
file commands and have a couple of questions:

1.  What is the difference between using simple quotes " xxx "
compared with `" xxx "' type quotes?  The user manual displays simple
quotes for write commands

file write handle "first part is"

while in the Gini/Pasquini' Automatic Generation of Document article
from Stata Journal vol 6 number 1, the typical example
uses a format like,

file write handle  `"first part is"'

I would like to know how they are treated differently, if at all.

2.  A more complicated question.  How does one use a $ sign in a file
write command and not have Stata treat it as a global macro?  For
instance, the end of the following command:

file write tex "\begin{tabular}{lrrrrrrrrrrr}\hline\\ \scriptsize
Model & `: word 1 of `:colname e(b)'' & p-val & "
file write tex "`: word 2 of `:colname e(b)'' & p-val & `: word 3 of
`:colname e(b)'' & p-val & `: word 4 of `:colname e(b)'' & "
file write tex "p-val & `: word 5 of `:colname e(b)'' & p-val & adj.
$R^2$ \\" _n
file write tex "\vspace{0.05in}" _n

generates:

\begin{tabular}{lrrrrrrrrrrr}\hline\\ \scriptsize Model & FFMkt &
p-val & SMB & p-val & HML & p-val & UMD & p-val & _cons & p-val & adj.
^2$ \\

and I end up with ^2$ as opposed to the $R^2$ term I need for a Latex
math string.  I also tried

`=char(35)'R^2$

without any change in results.  Any suggestions would be much
appreciated.


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