Joseph--
A minor generalization of your workaround uses -hexdump- to identify a
character otherwise unused in the input file as the "target" for all
spaces first (not tested thoroughly, just illustrative):
qui hexdump Mary.dat, res
local n=1
local i=160
while `n'>0 {
local n=r(c`i')
if `n'==0 local target="\"+"`i'"
local i=`i'+1
}
di `i'
if `i'==256 {
di as err "All char 160-255 in file"
error 198
}
tempfile tmpfil0
filefilter Mary.dat "`tmpfil0'", from(" ") to(`target'd)
quietly infile using Mary.dct, using("`tmpfil0'") clear
foreach var of varlist _all {
capture assert indexnot(`var', char(160)) == 0
if !_rc {
drop `var'
continue
}
quietly replace `var' = subinstr(`var', char(160), " ", .)
quietly destring `var', replace
}
generate str A = a_01 + a_02 + a_03 + a_04 + a_05 + a_06
list A, noobs separator(0)
*
* 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/
