symbolic dimensions in automatically constructed DATA section

If you use R2admb to generate a TPL file from specified data, the dimensions of the parameters are set automatically to the numeric values appropriate to that specific data. In other words, if you have a vector of length 50 corresponding to the observations, it will show up in the TPL file as vector(1,50) rather than vector(1,nobs). It should be possible in the new data format (where parameters can have attributes specified within the list) to add a "dims" option that would override the numeric value.

The issue points to automatic DATA-section generation in R2admb and the new data format's parameter attributes; start by locating that generator and its existing dimension handling. Done means a dims attribute can override numeric dimensions such as 50 with a symbolic value like nobs in the generated TPL file.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.