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st: apostrophes, quotation marks, left or right quotes?
How does one produce left and right single quotes as they are used in Stata?
Meanwhile, I know the answer. But because I am using Stata only
occasionally, every now and then I encounter typical beginners'
problems. Thus, it took me a while to find the correct answer and I
would like to comment on the difficulties hoping that this might improve
the situation of other beginners having the same problem.
Although I searched in "An introduction to Stata ..." by Svend Juul,
searched the release 9 "Getting started with Stata", [U] "User's Guide",
and [P] "Programming", and searched the internet (FAQ, statalist), it
took me more than half an hour to find the solution (ultimately by trial
and error).
I think the difficulty is due to a combination or an accumulation of
three things:
(1) I am using a non-English/American keyboard (German);
(2) The letter type used in printing (especially the Stata manuals!)
makes it impossible to decide how the correct quote should look like on
the screen;
(3) To find the answer you have to ask the correct question, but for
non-English speakers it is difficult to find the denotation of the signs
as used by the Stata community.
Let us start with the latter: In German we denote the signs "Hochkomma".
Looking this up in a standard dictionary renders "apostrophe". Searching
the indices of the manuals or the internet for "apostrophe" does not
help. Next, I tried "quotation mark". But alas, ... You have to look for
"left quote" or "right quote", but how should I know if I don't know the
answer already?
Browsing through the pages of the a.m. books did not help. Every time I
found examples using the quotes there were no indications on how to
produce the quotes using my keyboard. The problem: In printing the left
quote is a curved quote similar to a small round left bracket - similar
to "(" -, the right quote curved like a right bracket ")". However,
there are three different single quotes I can create with my keyboard:
One "forward" quote (similar to the forward slash "/"): |�|, one
"backward" quote (similar to the backslash "\"): |`|, and one vertical
quote (similar to the OR sign "|"): |'|. Why don't they use one of these
in the printed manuals? Why? Everything would be so much easier!
Finally, after I solved the problem, I found the following exchange in
the Stata list (thread "Help with Reading Arguments for Do-File"
http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2005-11/msg00499.html ): George
wrote "Thanks, the quotation marks were indeed the source of the
problem. Unfortunately, the manual does not make that clear." to which
Nick (n.j. cox) responded: "Many people have been bitten by this at
precisely your stage, but it is wrong to blame the manuals. I find at
[U] 18.3.1 (p.200 of Stata 9 edition) that the key difference between
left and right single quotes is explained when local macros are introduced."
To the contrary, it *is* the manuals to blame! If you read p. 200 of the
Stata 9 edition you find: "... we use a left single-quote (located at
the upper left on most keyboards), ... and a right single quote (located
under the " on the right side of most keyboards)...". This description
does not help at all if you are using a non-English/American keyboard!
And what is more: In printing they always use the small "(" ")" quotes
(forward-backward-curved), so that it is really *impossible* to
recognize the correct quote. Why make it so difficult? Why not print it
as it should look like? Why not *print* `shortcut' ?
On the German keyboard, I have to use the "accent grave" (thus, the
apostrophe starting on the top left) for the left single quote, and for
the right single quote I have to use the "common" single quote (the
vertical quote you find above the #-sign on a German keyboard ;-) , see:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/KB_Germany.svg/400px-KB_Germany.svg.png
Ultimately, the best description I found in Svend Juuls "An Introduction
to Stata ...":
"Hint: Producing the left single quote: In this book, the appearance of
single quotes differs a bit from how they look on your keyboard and
screen. Try 'help quotes' to see how they look on the screen. Keyboard
layouts differ, and on some keyboards, the left single quote is produced
by a dead key, meaning that nothing is produced until you hit the
spacebar." (p. 269)
If it is impossible to print the quotes in the manuals as they look on
the screen (and on the keyboard) - please, take over Svend Juuls
exemplary description.
I hope that this lengthy comment helps future beginners and demystifies
Nicks observation that "Many people have been bitten by this". Bites are
necessary for computations but aren't helpful at all for learning.
Dirk
*************************************************
Dr. Dirk Enzmann
Institute of Criminal Sciences
Dept. of Criminology
Schlueterstr. 28
D-20146 Hamburg
Germany
phone: +49-(0)40-42838.7498 (office)
+49-(0)40-42838.4591 (Mrs Billon)
fax: +49-(0)40-42838.2344
email: [email protected]
www:
http://www2.jura.uni-hamburg.de/instkrim/kriminologie/Mitarbeiter/Enzmann/Enzmann.html
*************************************************
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