Michael's code specified curly braces { } in
${S_DATE}
and he meant precisely what he wrote.
In context, the braces make it clear to Stata precisely what
is (and what is not) the name of the global macro whose
contents you want to be inserted at that point.
Common or garden parentheses ( ) have no such role
and just get taken literally in this context. Also,
ordinary algebra in which the choice between { } and ( )
can just be a matter of taste or convenience is no
guide here, as they are not equivalent in Stata.
Within
$(S_DATE)
Stata sees a $ and gears up for a global macro name
to follow -- but then the next thing (next token, in
Stataspeak) is a parenthesis, which cannot be part
of a global macro name. The result is that you just get an empty
string inserted instead, which is naturally difficult
to see there. (Be assured, it really is there. Or it
really isn't there. Same thing in practice, and
consult the theologians or philosophers about the
difference in principle.)
So in this command line the substring
(S_DATE)
will be taken literally and no macro subsitution will
take place. The rest you know, I think.
Nick
[email protected]
Donald Spady
> With this all I got was a file named comlog$(S_DATE).txt
> I then tried
> Cmdlog using "D:\statalogs\comlog($S_DATE)" and it worked fine.
Michael Blasnik
> Cmdlog using "D:\statalogs\comlog${S_DATE}"
Donald Spady
> >I want to make a command log file using cmdlog, but I want
> it to be unique
> > every time I begin Stata. Right now my command is
> >
> > cmdlog using "D:\statalogs\comlog",append
> >
> > I want it to read something like
> > Cmdlog using "D:\statalogs\comlog"+"$S_DATE"
> >
> > or some other unique identifier but every time I try it,
> the program
> > aborts
> > when it gets to the '+' sign. Can someone please tell me
> how to get this
> > to
> > work.
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
