Re: st: -using- option for program executed by -simulate-

[ymarchenko@stata.com (Yulia Marchenko, StataCorp)]

In http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2007-12/msg00669.html
Phil Schumm <pschumm@uchicago.edu> asked about writing a command
to use with -simulate- that would accept -using- as part of its
syntax:

> Often when performing simulations, it is helpful to start with an  
> existing dataset and then add to it, rather than having to create the  
> entire dataset from scratch at each iteration.  It would then seem  
> logical to pass the location of the saved dataset into one's program  
> via the -using- option.  However, for some reason, I can't seem to  
> get that to work (as demonstrated by this simple example):
>
> (example details omitted)
>
> . simul p = r(p), reps(100): foo group using `"`myfile'"', diff(1) sd(1)
> using not allowed
> r(101);

Phil correctly found that the error was being returned by
-_prefix_command- which is a utility routine called by -simulate-
and other prefix commands such as -bootstrap- and -jackknife-.

Austin Nichols <austinnichols@gmail.com> and Thomas Steichen
<SteichT@rjrt.com> show a workaround for this by specifying the
filename through an option:

   http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2007-12/msg00671.html
   http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2007-12/msg00674.html


We will look into adding the ability for commands used with the above
prefix commands to accept -using-; if that is not possible, we will
change the documentation to make it clear that it is not allowed.


--Yulia
ymarchenko@stata.com
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