Re: st: Dialog box for opening a file

[Alan Riley <ariley@stata.com>]

David Epstein (david.l.epstein@gmail.com) is trying to use Stata's
programmable dialog system to create his own simple dialog box
to open a .csv file, but his dialog box isn't working:

> This is a simple operation, but after hours of frustration I can't
> figure out how to program a simple dialog box to open a .csv file. The
> command I want to emulate is:
> 
> insheet using "myfile.csv", names clear
> 
> My dialog box program looks like this now, but I can't get Stata to
> open the file:
> ...

I'll leave David's dialog box code under my signature below.

> I'm guessing the problem is with my treatment of the quotation marks,
> but none of the approximately one gazillion variations I've tried
> works. Or perhaps it's something else basic that I've overlooked. Any
> help would be appreciated.

It looks like the "TEXT" line in the dialog box code is split
into two lines in the middle of the label().  If I copy David's
code and join these two lines to be one line

     TEXT     tx_dly      10  40   320  .,  label("Select file with data
   to be processed:")

then the dialog works as expected for me.

As an aside, if all David wants to do is present a simple file dialog to
prompt the user to choose an input file, and he doesn't want to put any
other options on the dialog box, then he may wish to look at
-help window fopen- and the example at the bottom of that help file.


Alan
ariley@stata.com



> 
> /*
>   daily_file.dlg
> */
> 
> 
> VERSION 12
> 
> POSITION . . 410 250
> 
> DIALOG main, label("Daily Data Processing") tabtitle("Main")
> BEGIN
>   TEXT     tx_dly      10  40   320  .,	label("Select file with data
> to be processed:")
>   FILE     fi_dly      10  +30  350  .,	error("Open file") label(Browse...) ///
>   			filter("CSV Files|*.csv|All Files|*.*")
> END
> 
> OK ok1,      label("OK")
> CANCEL can1, label("Cancel")
> SUBMIT sub1, label("Submit")
> HELP hlp1,   view("help generate")
> RESET res1
> COPY copy1
> 
> PROGRAM command
> BEGIN
>     put "insheet using "
>     put `"""'
>     require main.fi_dly
>     put main.fi_dly
>     put `"""'
>     put ", names clear "
> END
> 
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