re: st: -writeinput- available from SSC Archives

["Airey, David C" <david.airey@vanderbilt.edu>]

.

Nice idea. Thanks.

-Dave

> Thanks to Kit Baum, a new program -writeinput- is now available from SSC.  Stata 9.2 is required.  Use -ssc- to install if interested. 
> 
> -writeinput- is a convenient way to create a snippet of your data for inclusion in a do-file, a Statalist posting (much in the spirit of the Statalist FAQ), or self-contained examples provided to students or colleges.  Many times, having a snapshot of the data to share in a Statalist question or response reduces the chance of confusion or various interpretations of what is being asked.  
> 
> However, creating a good example isn't always straightforward.  Sometimes users may adapt a canned dataset or give code for for -generate-ing some illustrative variables;  other times they may try to describe the data structure or perhaps paste some data into an email.  Poor descriptions of data and poorly pasted/wrapped dataset examples are frequent culprits on Statalist.  A good solution is to create an -input- command to write the dataset used in the example and include this -input- command in your Statalist posting or do-file example, but this can be tedious.  The user must indicate in variable formats for the varlist and put double quotes around string variable values with embedded spaces in the -input- command.
> 
> -writeinput- eases the process of creating an example dataset by writing to a do-file the -input- command for an entire dataset or a subset of your data (selected by a varlist, if, or in conditions).  More on this command is available by typing -help writeinput- after installing the program or by visiting my webpage at 
> http://researchnotes.eric-a-booth.com
> .
> 
> - Eric 

*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/