Re: st: RE: RE: RE: Undocumented limitation of describe (and hence -ds-) in Stata 10?

["Michael I. Lichter" <mlichter@buffalo.edu>]

Thanks, Martin, that does solve my problem.

On the question of documentation, though, I don't see anything in the 
programmer's manual entry on macros regarding limitations on how many 
characters can be copied from one macro to another with the equals sign. 
I don't have access to Nick's article, unfortunately, so I don't know if 
he indicates where this is documented.

I also don't see anything explaining why/how r(varlist) and other r() 
macros are sometimes treated like local macros and sometimes not. It's 
not obvious to me why the first command below is valid while the second 
is not:

local x "`r(varlist)'"
di `:length local r(varlist)'

Thanks again.

Michael

Martin Weiss wrote:
> <>
>
> See also Nick`s http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2006-11/msg00769.html
>
>
>
> HTH
> Martin
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Martin Weiss
> Sent: Dienstag, 6. April 2010 19:16
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: st: RE: RE: Undocumented limitation of describe (and hence -ds-) in
> Stata 10?
>
>
> <>
>
>
> And "Beware the evaluating equal sign" (NJC parlance :-) ):
> http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=pr0045
>
>
>
> *******
> clear
> forvalues i = 1/30{
>     gen byte testvar`i' = .
> }
> d, varlist
> di "`r(varlist)'"
> local x "`r(varlist)'"
> di `:length local x'
> ma di
> *******
>
>
> HTH
> Martin
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Martin Weiss
> Sent: Dienstag, 6. April 2010 19:11
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: st: RE: Undocumented limitation of describe (and hence -ds-) in
> Stata 10?
>
>
> <>
>
> Just say - di "`r(varlist)'"-, whether Stata 10 or 11...
>
>
> HTH
> Martin
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Michael I.
> Lichter
> Sent: Dienstag, 6. April 2010 19:06
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: st: Undocumented limitation of describe (and hence -ds-) in Stata
> 10?
>
> I found out the hard way that the r(varlist) macro result returned by 
> -describe, varlist- (and hence -ds- and Nick Cox's -ds3-) is limited to 
> 243 characters, at least on my computer running Stata 10. Is there a 
> Stata setting I need to change? The help page says something about 
> -maxvar-, but this doesn't seem like it should matter, and in any event 
> doubling -maxvar- has on effect on this result. If this is not a 
> settings issue, has it been fixed in Stata 11? Thanks.
>
> -----
> clear
> forvalues i = 1/26 {
>     gen byte testvar`i' = .
> }
> d, varlist
> di r(varlist)
> local x = r(varlist)
> di `:length local x'
> -----
>
>   

--
Michael I. Lichter, Ph.D. <mlichter@buffalo.edu>
Research Assistant Professor & NRSA Fellow
UB Department of Family Medicine / Primary Care Research Institute
UB Clinical Center, 462 Grider Street, Buffalo, NY 14215
Office: CC 126 / Phone: 716-898-4751 / FAX: 716-898-3536

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