help touch
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Title

    touch -- Create a blank data file


Syntax

        touch filename, [type(string)] [replace] [var(string)]


Description

    touch creates a blank data file of the type specified.  This is useful to
    avoid append loops failing on the first run due to the file not existing,
    and is a slightly more elegant solution than -cap append-, as append will
    still abort the program if there is a real problem.  It is similar to the
    UNIX command touch.


Options


type specifies the type of file to create.  Options are txt for text-based file
> s e.g. csv, tsv, fixed, etc. or dta for Stata data files.  If not specified, 
> the program will attempt to guess based on the extension given in filename.

var specifies variable(s) to create.  Useful for merging in loops.

Version 1.1: Allows specification of the path as part of filename.

Example


        . tempfile looptempfile
        . touch `looptempfile'