st: RE: RE: log file lines numbers - can they be created/inserted

[Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

Nefarious negative needs negation: You must be careful to inhibit macro substitution. 

Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 

Nick Cox

Interesting question. Absent any option for this in -log- that I can see, an evident alternative is to do it after the fact. 

In my own favourite text editor, there is an easy way to show line numbers, and probably a way to add line numbers, and what one smart text editor can do, another can. 

Alternatively, this quick and dirty utility passed precisely one test: 

*! 0.0.1 NJC 18 Nov 2010 
program lineno
	version 11.0
	syntax anything(name=file) , saving(str) [ replace ] 

	if "`replace'" == "" {
		confirm new file `"`saving'"' 
	}  

	tempname hi ho
	file open `hi' using `"`file'"', r
	file open `ho' using `"`saving'"', w `replace'
	file read `hi' line
	local i = 1 
	
	while r(eof) == 0 {
		file write `ho' "`i' " `"`macval(line)'"' _n
		file read `hi' line
		local ++i 
	}
	
	file close `ho'
end

Perhaps 11.0 can be decreased; meaning, I didn't test this in Stata 10 or lower. 

The code points up one tricky point: in just copying lines, you must be careful not to inhibit macro substitution. 

Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 


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