esttab exporting an extra "\" to .tex

[Helder Costa]

Hello!
When assigning coefficient labels on esttab, I'm writing the following:

(...)

 coeflabel(var1 "\(\text{name}_{t - 1}\)")

(...)

But the resulting export to .tex is the following:

\(\text{name}\_{t - 1}\)

So, esttab is adding an extra \ before _{t -1}. If I export to .rtf, it gives me: name_t - 1, so the \ isn't added.
Not sure if it matters, but this happens when exporting results from a logit model. The variable is continuous. The reason that I want the_{t -1}, is that it automatically becomes a subscript in latex code, indicating that the variable is lagged.
Does anyone know how to avoid the \ getting added?

Thanks in advance for your time!
Hélder Costa

[Andrew Musau]

estout is from the Stata Journal/ SSC, as you are asked to explain (FAQ Advice #12). Probably the opposite problem is more pervasive, i.e., intending to have an underscore and ending up with a subscript. I would not advocate changing the default. Also note that the underscore indicates a subscript in math mode, so you should probably surround the whole thing with dollar signs.

sysuse auto, clear
regress mpg weight disp, nocons
esttab, varlab(weight "weight\$_{78}\$") substitute("\_" "_") tex

Res.:

. esttab, varlab(weight "weight\$_{78}\$") substitute("\_" "_") tex

{
\def\sym#1{\ifmmode^{#1}\else\(^{#1}\)\fi}
\begin{tabular}{l*{1}{c}}
\hline\hline
            &\multicolumn{1}{c}{(1)}\\
            &\multicolumn{1}{c}{mpg}\\
\hline
weight$_{78}$&      0.0138\sym{***}\\
            &      (9.83)         \\
displacement&      -0.111\sym{***}\\
            &     (-5.54)         \\
\hline
\(N\)       &          74         \\
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize \textit{t} statistics in parentheses}\\
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize \sym{*} \(p<0.05\), \sym{**} \(p<0.01\), \sym{***} \(p<0.001\)}\\
\end{tabular}
}

[Helder Costa]

Thank you very much Andrew Musau!