st: get full command name without invoking the command

["Jun Xu" <mystata@hotmail.com>]

I am writing a command like

mycmd reg y x1 x2 x3, by(groupvar)
or
mycmd logi y x1 x2 x3, by(groupvar)

it will invoke some built-in Stata command, and does things differnt than 
bysort groupvar: reg y x1 x2 x3 or parmest. However, I'd like it to produce 
some error message if it is not the Stata estimation command compatible with 
mycmd. One way is to blindly estimate the model using

reg y

in my codes first and get the e(cmd) macro and then put something at the 
very beginning like
if "`e(cmd)'"=="regress" {
then fine
}

else {
display error and exit
}
I think this is dumb. What I am thinking about is the alternative. Let's 
assume I can strip off reg or logit and put it into a local like sumcmd. Is 
there anyway that once I grab subcmd reg, I can use someway to expand it to 
regress using some Stata macro command.  I can automatically expand reg regr 
regres regress into regress, such that in check codes I can just specify 
once regress, such as

local cmd `subcmd' (which is reg) => `subcmdfull' (which is regress)

if "`subcmdfull'"=="regress" {
fine
}
else {
kick out
}

and I don't have to exhaust all possibilities of abbreviations.

Jun Xu
Department of Sociology
Indiana University

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