help help dialog: help
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title
[R] help -- Display online help
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stata's help system
There are several kinds of help available to the Stata user. For more
information, see Advice on getting help. The information below is
technical details about Stata's help command.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syntax
Display help information in Viewer
help [command_or_topic_name] [, nonew name(viewername)
marker(markername)]
Display help information in Results window
chelp [command_or_topic_name]
Menu
Help > Stata Command...
Description
The help command displays help information about the specified command or
topic.
Stata for Mac, Stata for Unix(GUI), and Stata for Windows:
help launches a new Viewer to display help for the specified command
or topic. If help is not followed by a command or a topic name,
Stata launches the Viewer and displays help contents, the table of
contents for the online help.
Help may be accessed either by selecting Help > Stata Command... and
filling in the desired command name or by typing help followed by a
command or topic name.
chelp will display help in the Results window.
Stata for Unix(console):
Typing help followed by a command name or a topic name will display
help on the console.
If help is not followed by a command or a topic name, a description
of how to use the help system is displayed.
Stata for Unix(both GUI and console):
man is a synonym for chelp.
Options
nonew specifies that a new Viewer window not be opened for the help topic
if a Viewer window is already open. The default is for a new Viewer
window to be opened each time help is typed so that multiple help
files may be viewed at once. nonew causes the help file to be
displayed in the topmost open Viewer.
name(viewername) specifies that help be displayed in a Viewer window
named viewername. If the named window already exists, its contents
will be replaced. If the named window does not exist, it will be
created.
marker(markername) specifies that the help file be opened to the position
of markername within the help file.
Remarks
To obtain help for any Stata command, type help command or select Help >
Stata Command... and fill in command.
help is best explained by examples.
To obtain help for ... type
regress help regress
postestimation tools for regress help regress postestimation
or help regress post
graph option xlabel() help graph xlabel()
Stata function strpos() help strpos()
Mata function optimize() help mata optimize()
Tips:
o help displays a subject table of contents for the online help.
o help guide displays a table of contents for basic Stata concepts.
o help estimation commands displays an alphabetical listing of all
Stata estimation commands.
o help functions displays help on Stata functions by category.
o help mata functions displays a subject table of contents for Mata's
functions.
o help ts glossary displays the glossary for the time-series manual,
and similarly for the other Stata specialy manuals.
See [U] 4 Stata's help and search facilities for a complete description
of how to use help.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What to do when you see --more--
Stata pauses and displays the characters --more-- at the bottom of the
results window whenever the output from a command is about to scroll off
the screen.
Action Result
----------------------- ----------------------------------------
Press Enter or Return One more line of text is displayed
Press b The previous screen of text is displayed
Press Ctrl-K --more-- condition is cleared and output stops
Press q --more-- condition is cleared and output stops
Press any other key The next screen of text is displayed
(such as space bar)
PCs:
Press Ctrl-Break Stata stops processing the command ASAP
Mac:
Press Command-. " " " " " "
Unix(Console):
Press Ctrl-C " " " " " "
Unix(GUI):
Press Ctrl-Break " " " " " "
--more-- happens all the time, not just in chelp, because Stata does not
scroll information off the screen without your permission.
These same keystrokes will work in response to a --more-- given by other
commands, except that pressing b works only with chelp. You cannot press
b to back up to the previous screen with other commands.
Interrupting Stata commands
You can press Ctrl-Break (or Command-. or Ctrl-C) at any time to
interrupt any command in Stata, not just in response to --more--.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also see
Manual: [R] help
Help: contents, [R] hsearch, [R] net search, [R] search
