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

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

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 

Ben Hoen

I often present output to the team of researchers working on the project I
have, and have found the log files to be the most useful to present results
in these preliminary stages (before any final output is needed to be
produced) Plots are exported via a separate bit of code.  

It would be extremely helpful to have line numbers display in a log file so
we all could quickly move to an output somewhere in a long file.  Is there a
way to do that?  Alternatively is there a way to have the output show the
line number of the .do file from which it is produced?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks,


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