[use "Fct - Stnd Ent", clear] returns [((null))]

[John Kim]

Hello, when I type

use "Fct - Stnd Ent", clear

in Stata, it returns

((null))

Normally, when I type something like

use data, clear,

in Stata, it returns nothing (at least for me), so I want to know the meaning of ((null)) here. I read https://www.stata.com/manuals/duse.pdf, but it says nothing about ((null)). Moreover, the data looks fine when I type "list", "d", etc. I'd really appreciate your guidance.

[Hemanshu Kumar]

My guess is that your dataset label has been set to (null). The dataset label is displayed when you use a file. For instance,

. use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/auto, clear
(1978 automobile data)

you can also see the dataset label when you describe:

. des

Contains data from https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/auto.dta
 Observations:            74                  1978 automobile data
    Variables:            12                  13 Apr 2022 17:45
                                              (_dta has notes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variable      Storage   Display    Value
    name         type    format    label      Variable label
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
make            str18   %-18s                 Make and model
price           int     %8.0gc                Price
mpg             int     %8.0g                 Mileage (mpg)
rep78           int     %8.0g                 Repair record 1978
headroom        float   %6.1f                 Headroom (in.)
trunk           int     %8.0g                 Trunk space (cu. ft.)
weight          int     %8.0gc                Weight (lbs.)
length          int     %8.0g                 Length (in.)
turn            int     %8.0g                 Turn circle (ft.)
displacement    int     %8.0g                 Displacement (cu. in.)
gear_ratio      float   %6.2f                 Gear ratio
foreign         byte    %8.0g      origin     Car origin
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorted by: foreign

If this is annoying you, you can change the dataset label to something more useful by doing:

label data "something more useful"