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st: -fs- updated on SSC


From   "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   st: -fs- updated on SSC
Date   Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:39:29 -0000

Thanks to Kit Baum, the package -fs- on SSC has been updated. 

Stata 8 is required. Please use -ssc- if you wish to install
or replace this package. 

The help for -extended_fcn- reveals an extended macro function 

{local | global} macname :  
	dir ["]dirname["] {files|dirs|other} ["]pattern["] [, nofail ] 

which may be used to get lists of file names satisfying a 
specified pattern in a particular directory or folder. 

-fs-, previously available in this package since 2004, is 
a convenience wrapper based on using that function for _files_. 
It was consciously designed as an analogue of the official 
command -ds- which displays a compact list of names of variables 
(satisfying some criterion) -- and also leaves that list in 
a r-class result. 

I have fixed a moderately esoteric bug in -fs- (meaning, it 
apparently didn't surface and/or bite anyone until I wrote a more 
demanding test suite). 

I have also added a new command -folders- which is a wrapper using that 
function for directories. (I rejected the name -dirs- as too
close to -dir-. I have broken a Stata rule in using an English 
word for a command, so be warned that StataCorp in principle 
may grab it back.) 

Kit Baum's role here extends beyond putting this on SSC. He 
contributed importantly to the design and testing of -folders- particularly 
through a discussion of what a user would usually want or expect. 

With no arguments, -folders- lists names of folders within the current folder.

Given a specification that is a pattern containing ? or *, -folders- lists 
names of folders matching that pattern.  The pattern may include a prefix 
indicating a folder that is not the current folder.

Otherwise, given a specification that is a folder name, -folders- lists names 
of folders contained within that folder.

So -folders- does slightly different things given different input, but 
those things seem to reflect the questions users (or at least Kit and myself) 
usually have. 

Nick 
[email protected] 

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