Re: st: Command line syntax for optional and required numeric statements

[Stephen Cranney <scranney@sas.upenn.edu>]

Okay, I still don't know exactly what the problem was, but for anybody
in the future that runs into this problem; the problem goes away by
quitting and re-starting Stata.

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 4:32 AM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> OK; but my advice on using -trace- commands still stands.
>
> Nick
>
> On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 1:53 AM, Stephen Cranney <scranney@sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>> Apologies, that was actually a comment from a prior version. It should
>> be on the same line as the * comment on the line before, but the email
>> made it into another line, so that's not an issue.
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> generate .o= oldage infertility
>>>
>>> won't work. In general, see -help trace- to learn about debugging commands.
>>>
>>> Nick
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 12:46 AM, Stephen Cranney
>>> <scranney@sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>>> I tried discard (thanks for the head up--didn't know that could be an
>>>> issue), but it still isn't working.
>>>>
>>>> I'm usually not wont to do this, but because I'm a little lost I'm
>>>> just going to go ahead and post the whole command I'm trying to write,
>>>> not because I expect anybody to spend the time to pick apart the whole
>>>> code, but just because this has some problem in the beginning couple
>>>> of lines that needs context. Everything within the syntax bracket is
>>>> on one line, but was cut up because of the email.
>>>>
>>>> program birthsim, rclass
>>>> version 11.2
>>>> syntax [, startyear (real 2000) endyear(real 2100) birthday (real 9)
>>>> birthmonth (real 1) birthyear (real 1987) marriageday (real 24)
>>>> marriagemonth (real 8) marriageyear (real 2008) latestageatbirth(real
>>>> 50) probabilityconceive(real .2) contraceptioneffectiveness(real 0)
>>>> probabilitymiscarriage(real .25) fetallossinfertility(real 4)
>>>> monthsofpostpartum(real 12)]
>>>>
>>>> *******************************************************************************************************
>>>> *Setup data columns
>>>> *******************************************************************************************************
>>>> set more off
>>>> set obs 1
>>>> generate id=1
>>>> generate age=25
>>>> generate births= .f
>>>>
>>>> set more off
>>>> forvalues bot = `startyear'(1)`endyear' {
>>>>   gen age`bot' = age >= `bot'
>>>> }
>>>> replace age2012=age
>>>> drop age
>>>> reshape long age, i(id) j(year)
>>>> egen month=group (year id)
>>>> forvalues month = 1(1)12 {
>>>>   gen month`month' = month >= `month'
>>>> }
>>>> egen group=group(year id)
>>>> drop month
>>>> reshape long month, i(group) j(newvar)
>>>> drop month
>>>> rename newvar month
>>>> drop group
>>>>
>>>> *******************************************************************************************
>>>> *Calculate birthday, age, and marriage day variable
>>>> *******************************************************************************************
>>>> generate birthdate=mdy(`birthmonth',`birthday',`birthyear')
>>>> format birthdate %d
>>>> generate marriagedate=mdy(`marriagemonth', `marriageday', `marriageyear')
>>>> format marriagedate %d
>>>> generate marriageage= (marriagedate-birthdate)/365.25
>>>> generate day=1
>>>> generate date=mdy(month, day, year)
>>>> format day %d
>>>> replace age=(date-birthdate)/365.25
>>>> generate contraceptionnoneffectiveness= 1-`contraceptioneffectiveness'
>>>> generate probabilityconceive2= `probabilityconceive'*
>>>> contraceptionnoneffectiveness
>>>> ************************************************************************************************************
>>>> *Calculate probability of having a child, .i= postpartum infertility,
>>>> generate .o= oldage infertility
>>>> **********************************************************************************************************
>>>> replace births= .a if age > `latestageatbirth'
>>>> replace births= .a if age < marriageage
>>>> replace births= rbinomial(1, probabilityconceive2) if births== .f
>>>> generate miscarriage= rbinomial(1, `probabilitymiscarriage') if births== 1
>>>>
>>>> ******************************************************************************************
>>>> *Create postpartum and post-abortive infertility.
>>>> ******************************************************************************************
>>>> local N = _N
>>>> local  monthsofpostpartum =  12
>>>> local monthsofpostmiscarriage= 7
>>>> forvalues i = 1/`N' {
>>>>         forvalues j= 1/`monthsofpostpartum' {
>>>>               local k = `i' + `j'
>>>>               local s= (`monthsofpostmiscarriage'-`j') + `i' + 1
>>>>                 if births[`i']==1 & miscarriage[`i']==0 replace
>>>> births= .p in `k'
>>>>                 if births[`i']==1 & miscarriage[`i']==1 & `s'>1
>>>> replace births= .m in `s'
>>>>                 }
>>>>         }
>>>> sum births if births==1
>>>> return scalar children= r(N)
>>>> end
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 4:45 PM, kantor.d@att.net <kantor.d@att.net> wrote:
>>>>> Are remembering to -discard- ?
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent with Verizon Mobile Email
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ---Original Message---
>>>>> From: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>>>>> Sent: 1/11/2013 4:42 pm
>>>>> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>>>>> Subject: RE: st: Command line syntax for optional and required numeric statements
>>>>>
>>>>> Stephen,
>>>>>
>>>>> The following lines of code work fine for me, so you'll need to show us a little more of what you're doing.
>>>>>
>>>>> Incidentally, I thought the spaces after the -birthday- and -birthmonth- options would bite, but it works fine with them.
>>>>>
>>>>> - Elan
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> cap program drop testsyntax
>>>>> program testsyntax
>>>>>         syntax [, startyear(real 2000) birthday (real 9) birthmonth (real 1)]
>>>>>
>>>>>         di "`startyear'"
>>>>>         di "`birthday'"
>>>>>         di "`birthmonth'"
>>>>> end
>>>>> testsyntax
>>>>> testsyntax, startyear(1981) birthday(5) birthmonth(1)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Cranney
>>>>> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 16:25
>>>>> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>>>>> Subject: Re: st: Command line syntax for optional and required numeric statements
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm still getting the "invalid syntax" response. I tried making it all
>>>>> optional and setting default values just to make it simpler. Now I
>>>>> have
>>>>>
>>>>> syntax [, startyear(real 2000) birthday (real 9) !
>>>>>  birthmonth (real 1)]
>>>>>
>>>>> I've seen various examples online that have this same format that don't
>>>>> seem to be having the same problem, so I guess at this point my main
>>>>> question is: in what situations would Stata return an "invalid syntax"
>>>>> response based on something put in the "syntax" line in the ado file?
>>>>> Setting trace on doesn't help because "invalid syntax" is
>>>>> the first thing that pops up.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best,
>>>>>
>>>>> Stephen
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 3:09 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> The pattern
>>>>>>
>>>>>> latestageatbirth(default=50)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> isn't correct for options. See -help syntax-. Try e.g.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> latestageatbirth(real 50)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nick
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 7:31 PM, Stephen Cranney <scranney@sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Apologies if this is simple, but I can't figure this out based on the
>>>>>>> documentation.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm writing an ado file and am trying to transfer all the macros I
>>>>>>> reference inside the file to the command line. Some of the values I want to
>>>>>>> make required, and some I wan!
>>>>>  t to make optional, but with a default value
>>>>>>> if the option is not t
>>>>>
>>>>> a
>>>>> ken. All of the macros I want in the command line
>>>>>>> are numeric.
>>>>>>> A representative snippet of the code is below, based on what I've been able
>>>>>>> to figure out from the documentation. It gives me an "invalid syntax"
>>>>>>> response when I try to "birthsim, startyear(2000)...". It works when I do
>>>>>>> it with args, but obviously that's much more cumbersome than syntax in this
>>>>>>> context.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> program birthsim, rclass
>>>>>>> version 11.2
>>>>>>> syntax startyear(integer) endyear(integer)  [,latestageatbirth(default=50)
>>>>>>> ]
>>>>>>>
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