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

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

This sounds to me consistent with not using -discard- every time it is
needed, meaning that the old program is still in memory, even though
you think you have fixed it.

Nick

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 3:10 AM, Stephen Cranney <scranney@sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
> 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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