The meta-reply is to rummage in [U] as these matters are explained
carefully and fully there. The kind of programming you are doing is
fiddly and you need a decent source by your hand and preferably
transferred to your brain.
In essence, you need compound double quotes `" "' (hereafter c.d.q.)
whenever you are nesting double quotes " " as the latter are ambiguous.
But c.d.q. do no harm if they are not needed.
An example of the problem is "a"b"c". Is this
"a"
followed by
b
followed by
"c"
Or is it
"b"
nested within a string that starts "a and ends c". You may know what you
mean but Stata hasn't a chance because a beginning " and an ending " are
of course exactly the same symbol. However c.d.q. are clearly different
as `" and "' are distinguishable by programmer and machine alike. Each
c.d.q. is logically a single symbol although typed as two (same story as
>=, <=, !=, etc.).
In essence too: if you mean $ to indicate anything other than a global
macro symbol you must escape it with \. That's not an absolute as Stata
manages to be a bit smart about e.g. $10 which is what this email would
cost you at a decent consultancy rate.
Nick
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thomas Jacobs
Sent: 16 April 2009 20:14
To: StataList
Subject: st: A couple of file command questions for writing a .tex
program
Fellow listers,
I am trying to learn to write Latex files from Stata/Mata with the
file commands and have a couple of questions:
1. What is the difference between using simple quotes " xxx "
compared with `" xxx "' type quotes? The user manual displays simple
quotes for write commands
file write handle "first part is"
while in the Gini/Pasquini' Automatic Generation of Document article
from Stata Journal vol 6 number 1, the typical example
uses a format like,
file write handle `"first part is"'
I would like to know how they are treated differently, if at all.
2. A more complicated question. How does one use a $ sign in a file
write command and not have Stata treat it as a global macro? For
instance, the end of the following command:
file write tex "\begin{tabular}{lrrrrrrrrrrr}\hline\\ \scriptsize
Model & `: word 1 of `:colname e(b)'' & p-val & "
file write tex "`: word 2 of `:colname e(b)'' & p-val & `: word 3 of
`:colname e(b)'' & p-val & `: word 4 of `:colname e(b)'' & "
file write tex "p-val & `: word 5 of `:colname e(b)'' & p-val & adj.
$R^2$ \\" _n
file write tex "\vspace{0.05in}" _n
generates:
\begin{tabular}{lrrrrrrrrrrr}\hline\\ \scriptsize Model & FFMkt &
p-val & SMB & p-val & HML & p-val & UMD & p-val & _cons & p-val & adj.
^2$ \\
and I end up with ^2$ as opposed to the $R^2$ term I need for a Latex
math string. I also tried
`=char(35)'R^2$
without any change in results. Any suggestions would be much
appreciated.
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