st: reading data with missing obs

[Glen Waddell <glen.waddell@gmail.com>]

All,
I am trying to read in data from multiple xml files (although this issue 
is not specific to this format, I believe) in which some of the sheets 
within some of the files have variable names in the first row and 
nothing else.  That is, all variables are missing in some of the sheets 
within some of the files.

In reading in these files, Stata only appears to read in the first 
variable... not continuing to subsequent columns.  If I had but a few 
files I would brute force this by filling the empty cells with some 
unique character, read them in and then drop the obs accordingly.  
However, I have many of these sheets to be read in, so automating it 
would be quite valuable.

Many thanks,
Glen



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