Re: st: Why does Stata return a syntax error when a quoted item containing spaces is the first element in a macro?

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

If you want " " as inner delimiters, you need `" "' as outer delimiters.

 local sheets `"  "All Individuals" <25 26 27 28+ "'

The outermost delimiters must always be all inclusive whenever they are shown.

Nick
njcoxstata@gmail.com


On 17 June 2013 22:23, Aaron Kirkman <ak1795mailserv@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm iterating over a macro that contains quoted elements with spaces,
> but Stata returns a syntax error when a quoted element is the first
> item. The list items are sheet names, e.g. "All Individuals", "<25",
> ... , "28+". This code:
>
>     local sheets "All Individuals" <25 26 27 28+
>
> returns a syntax (r198) error on the macro declaration. I get the same
> error if I use compound quotes:
>
>     local sheets `""All Individuals""' <25 26 27 28+
>
> If I move the quoted item to another position in the list, the macro
> declaration is successful and I can iterate over the items properly:
>
>     local sheets <25 "All Individuals" 26 27 28
>     foreach sheetname of local sheets {
>         display `"`sheetname'"'
>     }
>
> I found a similar example on stack overflow
> (http://stackoverflow.com/a/10067769):
>
>     local mylist aaa bbb "cc c" dd ee ff
>     foreach filename of local mylist {
>       display `"`filename'"'
>     }
>
> which works in the same fashion and is successful. However, if I move
> the quoted item to the beginning of the macro:
>
>     local mylist "cc " aaa bbb dd ee ff
>
> Stata returns the same syntax error as before. How can I set up this
> macro in order for Stata to parse it correctly? The "All Individuals"
> item needs to be the first item in the macro; otherwise I would move
> it elsewhere in the list to bypass the error. Am I escaping the quotes
> incorrectly?
>
> I'm using Stata 12 MP on Windows 7 x64.
>
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