.- help for ^postfile^, ^post^, ^postmiss^, ^postclose^ (manual: ^[R] postfile^) .- 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@