I received the following from Alan Riley, Stata's VP for Software
Development, in an offlist message and have his permission to post it
here.
Quote:
In Stata 9, there was logic that tried to be 'smart' when a
display format got too wide and changed it to a base format
that would fit. Unfortunately for date formats, the base
format was %d, which of course isn't what you wanted if
you were using, for example, a %tm format.
In Stata 10, with the new date-and-time formats, we changed
the logic to be 'smart' about the base format if the display
width is too narrow for the user-specified format. So, in
your example in Stata 10, if the display width is too narrow
for a %tmM_CY format, Stata will drop down to just a %tm format.
For Stata 9, the only workaround is to use a format that is not
too wide for the display width.
Unquote
I'd reached a similar conclusion regarding the workaround but am
pleased to now know the internal source of the problem.
DC Elliott
*
* 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/
