I think I have discovered an unwanted new feature of the -shell- command,
at least in the 01 July 2004 version of Stata 8.2 under Windows 2000. It
appears not to work when both the DOS command path and the filename are
enclosed in quotes.
For instance, if the user has StatTransfer 7 installed in a folder
C:\Program Files\StatTransfer7\
and has the auto data in a file auto.dta in the local directory, then the
command
will create a Microsoft Excel version of the auto data in the file
my_auto.xls. However, the command
shell "C:\Program Files\StatTransfer7\st" /o /y auto.dta "my auto.xls"
will not create a Microsoft Excel version of the auto data in a file "my
auto.xls". The problem is the quotes and not the embedded spaces in the
filename (which make the quotes necessary), because the command
does not create a Microsoft Excel version of the auto data in a file
my_auto.xls.
This feature of -shell- is specific to the -shell- command syntax
shell operating_system_command
because, if I simply type
shell
and open a DOS window and then, in that DOS window, type
"C:\Program Files\StatTransfer7\st" /o /y auto.dta "my auto.xls"
then a Microsoft Excel version of the -auto- data is created in the file
"my auto.xls".
This feature of the -shell- command has partially disabled my -stcmd-
package, which is downloadable from SSC and also shipped with official
StatTransfer 7, but which will no longer work with filenames in quotes,
which used to cause no problems. I personally would never define a filename
containing spaces (and therefore necessitating quotes), but some of my
SPSS-using collaborators do this with the .sav files which they send me.
(As a quick and dirty fix, I suppose I always could rename these .sav
files, substituting underscores for blanks.)
The new feature of -shell- is not specific to StatTransfer. In my system,
WinZip lives in a folder
C:\Program Files\winzip\
If I have 2 .zip files named demo1.zip and "demo 1.zip", then the Stata command
will not unzip "demo 1.zip". Again, both DOS commands work if typed
manually in a DOS window opened by the command
shell
typed in Stata without arguments.
Even more curiously, the Stata command
shell copy my_auto.xls "my auto.xls"
will work if the file my_auto.xls exists, and create a new file "my
auto.xls". The Stata command
shell copy "my auto.xls" "my new auto.xls"
will also work, and create a new file "my new auto.xls". This suggests that
the problem only appears if both the DOS command path and at least one
filename are enclosed in quotes.
Can other users reproduce this feature? And, if so, is it likely to be
permanent?
Best wishes (and thanks in advance)
Roger
--
Roger Newson
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Department of Public Health Sciences
King's College London
5th Floor, Capital House
42 Weston Street
London SE1 3QD
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 7848 6648 International +44 20 7848 6648
Fax: 020 7848 6620 International +44 20 7848 6620
or 020 7848 6605 International +44 20 7848 6605
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.kcl-phs.org.uk/rogernewson
Opinions expressed are those of the author, not the institution.
