Bookmark and Share

Notice: On April 23, 2014, Statalist moved from an email list to a forum, based at statalist.org.


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: st: RE: Critique on comment syntax and suggestions


From   Steven Samuels <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: RE: Critique on comment syntax and suggestions
Date   Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:04:20 -0500

As I look at Stata's output, I do think I see a small bug in the results display.
*****************************
sysuse auto, clear
# delimit ;
// This next line won't get processed because I forgot to put a semicolon
drop if mpg ==.;
******************************

Output (SMCL or text)
****************************
sysuse auto, clear
. # delimit ;
delimiter now ;
. // This next line won't get processed because I forgot to put a semicolon
> drop if mpg ==.;
(0 observations deleted)
*****************************

Notice that the line beginning the valid command is started by a continuation character ">". I would call this a bug, but it does not mean that the line is part of the comment!

Steve



I think there is a small inconsistency, as Joseph pointed out.  A

You are not correct, Daniel; the following line is _not_ a part of the comment. Take a look at Joseph's message, especially his example 3 at http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2008-09/msg01271.html

Steve

On Jan 28, 2011, at 2:34 PM, Daniel Feenberg wrote:


On Fri, 28 Jan 2011, Steven Samuels wrote:

--


--


I've been bitten in the past by omitting semicolons. I now use continuation characters, and reserve the semicolon to delimit single commands, especially for graphs, that have many, often long, options. I find such commands easier to read and modify if each option is on a single line. If I use continuation characters in such commands, the lines look messy unless I line the characters up. For me that's too much work. As Nick said, it's personal taste.

Bryce, you are asking Stata's do-file editor to find syntax errors, and I

Not really - the line:

drop if criticalvar=1;

is stricktly speaking part of the comment, and he is asking that it be colored as a comment, to match the view that Stata will take. Currently the editor is treating it as executable, which is clearly an incorrect parsing of the code.

don't think that's its function. After reading the second post David referred to (it's by Joseph Coveney), I don't really see a bug. Off topic, "Stata" is spelled "Stata." See the FAQ Section 8.2.

Steve





*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/

*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/


© Copyright 1996–2018 StataCorp LLC   |   Terms of use   |   Privacy   |   Contact us   |   Site index