There is no linebreak (new line character) for the Command Window except "{" when used for programming-- correct?

[Mitchell Berman]

I was practicing interactive programming using foreach and came across an old Stata list entry from 2003
http://www.stata.com/statalist/archi.../msg00142.html

I understand the arguments on both sides, but wondered if I had missed the addition of a new line character since 2003.

Thanks in advance.

Mitchell Berman
Columbia University

[Nick Cox]

Sorry, but I don't understand the question. In using the Command window interactively, pressing Enter is one and the same as ending a line and sending it to Stata. I can't think of another way of doing it.

[Jorrit Gosens]

Question is a bit confusing, but:
- there's no line continuation marker in the command window;
- the braces {} are not line break characters but used to indicate begin/end of a loop; (and only work when the block is run as a whole in a do file)
- in a do file you can use /// as a continuation marker.

[Nick Cox]

You can use { and } interactively. In each case they would be the last (non-space) character on a command line.

[Mitchell Berman]

Got it. There is no line continuation marker for the Command Window.
The enter key sends what has been written on the line to Stata; there is no way to continue a long command on a second line, without sending the first (incomplete) line to Stata.
(except when programming and using the braces {} ).

Thank you very much.

[Nick Cox]

Yes, but the braces aren't an exception. A line like

foreach f of local foo { 

is syntactically a line; it's just a question of whether what follows makes sense given that prequel. Similarly

}

is a command line, which may or may not be legal (or useful).

[Mitchell Berman]

Ah, I see your point. In your example, the first line (starting with foreach) IS a complete line.
I was thinking cosmetically, not functionally.