st: RE: reading txt-file without end-of-line delimiter and uneven record length

["Steichen, Thomas J." <SteichT@RJRT.com>]

Even,

Here is some code that reads the file and displays selected values:

program read_longfile
  version 10.1
  gettoken mname 0 : 0
  syntax using/

* open input file
  tempname hdl
  file open `hdl' using `"`using'"', read binary

* get first record (as strings)
  file read `hdl' %11s val_11 %1963s junk
  di %11.0f real("`val_11'")

* loop over 100 records
  forvalues i = 1(1)100 {

*   get 6-byte var (as string)
    file read `hdl' %6s val_6
    di %3.0f `i' ": " %6.0f real("`val_6'")

*   loop over 151 13-byte vars (as strings)
    forvalues j = 1(1)151 {
      file read `hdl' %13s val_135
    }

  }
  di %13.5f real("`val_135'")

* close input file
  file close `hdl'

  end

* call via: read_longfile, using "filename"



-----------------------------------
Thomas J. Steichen
steicht@rjrt.com
-----------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Even Bergseng
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 3:00 PM
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: st: reading txt-file without end-of-line delimiter and uneven record length

Dear listers!

I have a txt-file without end-of-line delimiter and uneven record length that I want to read into Stata. The lack of end-of-lin delimiters and hence all observations on one line, suggests using the _lrecl option of the -infile2- command. The uneven record length suggests otherwise.

There is only one uneven record (1975 bytes) which occurrs at the beginning of the file. All other records are 1969 bytes. There are 100 records excluding the first.

I have tried to use -file read- and then -file write- to get rid of the first uneven record to be able to use -infile-, but the total line length and thus the macro from -file read- makes Stata state "too few quotes" when I try to write it with -file write-.

My code for the -file- command is as follows:

****
tempname OUT1
file open `OUT1' using "$sima\OUT1.dat", read write text
file seek `OUT1' 1975
file read `OUT1' line
file close `OUT1'
tempname RESULT
file open `RESULT' using "$sima\RESULT.dat", read write text
file write `RESULT' (`"`macval(line)'"')
file close `RESULT'
***

Any hints on how th read the txt-file?

best regards,
Even Bergseng

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