This is for StataCorp, as -insheet- is C code
buried in the executable for Stata developers to
contemplate in seclusion. But my understanding
is that you may be better off importing as string and
doiny your own conversions.
Nick
[email protected]
Phil Schumm
> > Does anyone know how -insheet- determines datatypes --
> > specifically, how it distinguishes between numeric and string? If
> > I read a large file and a column that is otherwise strictly
> numeric
> > has a non-numeric value toward the end, can I rely on Stata to
> > retain that observation and set the column to string (as
> opposed to
> > setting the non-numeric value to missing)? Or, can I at
> least rely
> > on Stata to throw a "cannot be read as number" error that I
> can catch?
>
>
> Actually, I just realized that the "cannot be read as number" error
> (as, say, raised by -infile- if you try to read a string column as
> numeric) isn't really an error but is just a warning, and, IIRC,
> doesn't leave anything around in r() to catch. Thus, while it's
> helpful in an interactive session, it can't be used in code.
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