Re: st: String with embedded quotes and local macros

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

You should try

display `"`text'"'

The principle is this. Double quotation marks  " " will be treated as
delimiters and stripped on display _unless_ you protect them with
compound double quotes `" "'.

Nick

Terminology tip: you issued a command, not a function.

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 5:51 PM, Michael Costello
<michaelavcostello@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm trying to take some text from a spreadsheet that has embedded
> double quotes (dateset 1) and convert it into a value label in another
> (dateset 2). Currently I'm trying to do this by using local macros to
> bridge the gap as I switch from one dataset to the other.
>
> Let's say the long string of the value label in questions is: 1 "The"
> 2 "quick" 3 "brown" 4 "fox jumps over" 5 "the" 6 "lazy dog."
>
> Yet, every time I try to run the function below, all (or almost all)
> of my spaces get pushed out! Does anyone have a way that I can try to
> keep these spaces still included. Specifically, I mean the spaces
> between the numbers and their corresponding label values. In the end,
> I will need to peel part of the value label off to be part of the
> variable label, so I think the spaces become important for that
> function. Also, when I do a -wordcount- function on the saying, is
> there any way that I can get Stata to treat "fox jumps over" all as
> one . . . um . . . word?
>
> local text `"1 "The" 2 "quick" 3 "brown" 4 "fox jumps over" 5 "the" 6
> "lazy dog.""'
> display `text'
> 1The2quick3brown4fox jumps over5the6lazy dog.
>
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