st: Automatically increasing graph hight to accommodate long notes?

["Raymond P. Guiteras" <rpguiteras@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

I often append very long notes to Stata graphs and would like to 
increase the graph height to accommodate these notes. This is fairly 
straightforward on a case-by-case basis using --ysize()--. However, I 
would like to be slightly more efficient by somehow automating this 
process, so that it is not necessary to fiddle with the argument of the 
--ysize()-- command should the length of the note change.

Does anyone have suggestions for how to proceed?

It may be useful to mention that I can store the number of lines the 
note takes up in a local macro (e.g. `b' in the sample code below).

I apologize if this has been covered before or if I have overlooked or 
misunderstood something in the help manuals.

Many thanks for your understanding and help.

Best regards,
Raymond


Example code creating a note that overruns the graph boundary:

sysuse auto

* write out note here as a local macro
local MyNote "Notes: This is a very long note, the point of which is 
just to test the auto-wrapping code below, as well as see how the text 
size changes when exporting to different file types, i.e. wmf, emf, ps, 
eps. Furthermore, this additional sentence is supposed to push this note 
beyond the boundaries of the graph. However, it is not quite long enough 
so another sentence is necessary. And we have attained success."
* the goal is to create a local macro with the above as its contents, 
but split into pieces of 110 characters or fewer
* with these pieces enclosed in double-quotes, e.g. "Notes: This is a 
very long note ...as well as" "to see...eps."
// di "`MyNote'"

* obtain length of note (number of characters) and number of pieces of 
length 110
local l = length("`MyNote'")
// di "`l'"
local b = ceil(`l'/110)
// di "`b'"

if `l' > 110 {
	forv i = 1/`b' {
		// use extended macro function "piece" to break MyNote into chunks of 
110 characters
		local lab`i': piece `i' 110 of "`MyNote'", nobreak
		// di "local macro lab`i' contains"
		// di "`lab`i''"
		// use compound double quotes to create macro MyNote2 that contains 
simple double-quotes
		// create first piece
		if `i'==1 {
			local MyNote2 `""`lab`i''""'
		}
		// append subsequent pieces
		if `i'>=2 {
			local MyNote2 `"`MyNote2' "`lab`i''""'
		}
		// di "local macro MyNote2 contains"
		// di `"`MyNote2'"'
	}
}
else {
local MyNote2 `""`MyNote'""'
}
// di `"`MyNote2'"'

twoway scatter weight length, ///
	title("Testing Position of Title") ///
	note(`MyNote2', span )
graph save autowrapnote, replace
local exporttypes "emf wmf eps ps"
foreach ext of local exporttypes {
	cap graph export autowrapnote.`ext', replace
	di "Exporting to `ext' returned `=_rc'"
}
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