st: RE: Two-word commands with gettoken

["Nick Cox" <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

I wouldn't use globals here, or indeed almost anywhere else. 

Anyone watching needs to know that local macro 0 is special; it is born as whatever the user types after the command line. It can be redefined, as here with -gettoken-. 

A little inelegant, but practical, is to do something like this:  

        program define mycmd
		    local typed `0' 
                gettoken subcmd 0: 0
                if "`subcmd'"=="reg" | "`subcmd'"=="areg" |
"`subcmd'"=="xtreg" {
                        mycmd_ols `typed'
                }
                else if  "`subcmd'"=="ivreg" | "`subcmd'"=="xtivreg" |
"`subcmd'"=="ivreg2" | "`subcmd'"=="xtivreg2" {
                        mycmd_iv `typed'
                }
                else    error 199
        end

and then parse away. 

Alternatively, don't use -gettoken- at all. That sounds better. 

        program define mycmd
		    local subcmd : word 1 of `0' 
                if "`subcmd'"=="reg" | "`subcmd'"=="areg" |
"`subcmd'"=="xtreg" {
                        mycmd_ols `0'
                }
                else if  "`subcmd'"=="ivreg" | "`subcmd'"=="xtivreg" |
"`subcmd'"=="ivreg2" | "`subcmd'"=="xtivreg2" {
                        mycmd_iv `0'
                }
                else    error 199
        end

 


Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Augusto Cadenas
Sent: 07 March 2009 20:09
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: st: Two-word commands with gettoken

Hello,

I have a question about -gettoken- and programming in Stata. The stata
help file suggests that -gettoken- can be used to create a two-word
command. This is the example that is given:

*** begin example ***

        program define mycmd
                gettoken subcmd 0: 0
                if "`subcmd'"=="list" {
                        mycmd_l `0'
                }
                else if "`subcmd'"=="generate" {
                        mycmd_g `0'
                }
                else    error 199
        end

        program define mycmd_l
                ...
        end

        program define mycmd_g
                ...
        end

*** end example ***

I wonder how I could use the `subcmd' that has been determined by the
first program, -mycmd-, within the sub-programs -mycmd_l- and
-mycmd_g- without referring to it explicitly. To make a concrete
example: In my case I want a program to do two similar, but slightly
different things depending on whether I am doing an OLS regression or
an IV regression. So the setup I have in mind is like:

*** begin example ***

        program define mycmd
                gettoken subcmd 0: 0
                if "`subcmd'"=="reg" | "`subcmd'"=="areg" |
"`subcmd'"=="xtreg" {
                        mycmd_ols `0'
                }
                else if  "`subcmd'"=="ivreg" | "`subcmd'"=="xtivreg" |
"`subcmd'"=="ivreg2" | "`subcmd'"=="xtivreg2" {
                        mycmd_iv `0'
                }
                else    error 199
        end

        program define mycmd_ols
                ...
                `subcmd' `0'
                ...
        end

        program define mycmd_iv
                ...
                `subcmd' `0'
                ...
        end

*** end example ***

But this does not work, I guess because `subcmd' is not recognized
within the next program. How do I get around that? It's two days I'm
trying and I haven't found a solution. Thanks for any suggestions.

AC
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