st: macro - expansion problem

[Fred Wolfe <fwolfe@arthritis-research.org>]

I wonder if any Statalister might help me with this problem: using windows 
xp, stata 8.2SE - up to date.

I am passing a series of file descriptions to the -file- program in the 
macro -fname-.

They look like:

c:\statdata\zoster\zoster.hlp
c:\statdata\analgesic\readme.txt

<snip>
file open `wfile' using c:/ado/personal/projects.hlp, write replace
file write `wfile' "{smcl}" _n
foreach fname of local dirs {
file write `wfile' "View {view  `fname'}" _n
}
<snip>

After the program runs, I look in the created help file and see this:

View \statdata\ADR\adr.hlp
View \statdata\adrepi\adrepi.hlp
View \statdata\back\backpain.hlp
View \statdata\back\fibro.hlp
View \statdata\back\utility.hlp
View \statdata\cancerfu\breastcancer.hlp
View \statdata\cancerfu\cancerfu.hlp
View \statdata\cancerfu\lungcancer.hlp

When I click on one of these, I get the following:

file c not found
request was:

view c


The ":" is being dropped and the  path/file split apart.

I would like to see:

View c:\statdata\ADR\adr.hlp

I have not been able to solve this problem with escape characters "\" or 
macval() or any other text I could think of.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Fred Wolfe


Fred Wolfe
National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases
Wichita, Kansas
Tel (316) 263-2125     Fax (316) 263-0761
fwolfe@arthritis-research.org


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