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help for ^postfile^, ^post^, ^postmiss^, ^postclose^            (manual:  ^[R] postfile^)
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Save results in Stata dataset
-----------------------------

	^postfile^  postname varlist ^using^ filename [^,^ ^d^ouble ^e^very^(^#^)^ ^replace^ ]

	^post^      postname exp exp ... exp

	^postmiss^  postname exp exp ... exp

	^postclose^ postname


Do not confuse ^post^ with ^ml post^; see help @ml@.


Description
-----------

These commands are utilities to assist Stata programmers in performing Monte
Carlo type experiments.

^postfile^ declares the variable names and filename of a (new) Stata dataset
where results are to be stored.

^post^ adds a new observation to the declared dataset without disturbing the
data in memory.

^postmiss^ behaves just like ^post^, except when an exp cannot be evaluated --
for example, when an expected saved result or coefficient could not be
calculated.  In such cases, ^postmiss^ posts a missing "." for these
expressions; conversely ^post^ will fail and issue an error message.

^postclose^ declares an end to the posting of observations.  After ^postclose^,
the new dataset contains the posted results and may be loaded using ^use^;
see help @use@.


Options
-------

^double^ specifies that the results are to be stored as Stata ^double^s, meaning
    8-byte reals.  If ^double^ is not specified, results are stored as ^float^s,
    meaning 4-byte reals.  See help @datatypes@.

^every(^#^)^ specifies results are to be written to disk every #th call to ^post^.
    ^post^ temporarily holds results in memory and periodically opens the
    dataset being built to append to the stored results.  ^every()^ should
    typically not be specified as you are unlikely to choose a value for #
    that is as efficient as the number ^post^ chooses on its own, which is a
    function of the number of results being written and their storage type.

^replace^ indicates that the file specified (may) already exist and, if it does,
    ^postfile^ may erase the file and create a new one.


Remarks
-------

Typical use of the post commands is

	^tempname memhold^
	^tempfile results^
	...
	^postfile `memhold'^ ... ^using `results'^
	...
	^while^ ... {
		...
		^post `memhold'^ ...
		...
	}
	^postclose `memhold'^
	...


Also see
--------

 Manual:  ^[R] postfile^
On-line:  help for @bstrap@, @simul@
