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Stata does not appear to accept forward slashes in Stata 16

Example from here.

webuse sem_sm2, clear

sem ///
(anomia67 pwless67 <- Alien67) /// measurement piece
(anomia71 pwless71 <- Alien71) /// measurement piece
(Alien67 <- SES) /// structural piece
(Alien71 <- Alien67 SES) /// structural piece
(SES -> educ occstat66), nolog //  measurement piece

What I get is somehow:

. sem ///
invalid use of '/'
r(198);

. 
. (anomia67 pwless67 <- Alien67) /// measurement piece
( is not a valid command name
r(199);

. 
. (anomia71 pwless71 <- Alien71) /// measurement piece
( is not a valid command name
r(199);

. 
. (Alien67 <- SES) /// structural piece
( is not a valid command name
r(199);

. 
. (Alien71 <- Alien67 SES) /// structural piece
( is not a valid command name
r(199);

. 
. (SES -> educ occstat66), nolog //  measurement piece
( is not a valid command name
r(199);

Could anyone tell me what is going on here? A colleague can run this in a different version. Did the syntax change?

Solution

  • See [U] 16.1.2 in the manuals for basic explanation of comments.

    The /* /, //, and /// comment indicators can be used in do-files and ado-files only; you may not use them interactively. You can, however, use the ‘’ comment indicator interactively.