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RE: st: Re: read tempvars in user created programs


From   mario fiorini <[email protected]>
To   <[email protected]>
Subject   RE: st: Re: read tempvars in user created programs
Date   Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:37:20 +0000

thanks Sergiy!
I could not figure out that passing just the handle of the temporary variable would not work. 

Mario



> Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:12:23 -0500
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: st: Re: read tempvars in user created programs
> 
> Yes Mario,
> 
> the variables will be there. You can check this by calling -describe-
> within your subroutine. However you must somehow tell the subroutine,
> which variables you keep in mind (and for the subroutine they will not
> be temporary, they will exist after the subroutine completes because
> they were created before the subroutine started). If you pass the name
> of the handle of the temporary variable the subroutine will not be
> able to dereference it. To correct the problem, you must dereference
> in the calling routine (the one that created the tempvar, or more
> correctly that obtained a handle, potentially you can create the
> variable itself in the subroutine), see example below. Using globals
> is feasible but very highly unrecommended and should be avoid at all
> means possible.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Best regards,
>    Sergiy Radyakin
> 
> version 9.2
> clear
> program drop _all
> 
> program define summ_temp_var /* this is subroutine */
>    args myvar
>    describe
>    sum `myvar'
>    display "I have no idea what [`z'] means, because I have no access
> to local z from here,"
>    display "but I can see globals from anywhere, so I know that global
> z is [$z]"
>    sum $z
> end
> 
> program define test_summ_temp_var /* this will create a tempvar */
>   tempvar z  /* z is not accessible from the subroutine */
>   global z `z'
>   generate `z'=uniform()
>   display "Tempvar z refers to `z'"
>   summ_temp_var `z'  /* pass the value of z, not the name z itself */
>   sum `z' /* variable still exists, it was not destroyed when the
> summ_temp_var has finished */
>   describe
> end
> 
> sysuse auto
> test_summ_temp_var
> describe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 9:31 PM, mario fiorini  wrote:
>> Hi Martin,
>> yes I know that. I am mainly trying to understand whether there is a way to have a program that sees tempvars generated externally to the program itself. The summarize command is there just as an example.
>>
>> Mario
>>
>>> From: [email protected]
>>> To: [email protected]
>>> Subject: st: Re: read tempvars in user created programs
>>> Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:59:54 +0100
>>>
>>> Well,
>>>
>>> -summarize- never sees the -tempvar- that you intend to use; instead it sees
>>> nothing. If -su- sees nothing, it -summarize-s everything by default,
>>> including your -tempvar-...
>>>
>>> HTH
>>> Martin
>>> _______________________
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "mario fiorini"
>>> To:
>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 12:44 AM
>>> Subject: st: read tempvars in user created programs
>>>
>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> I have written a program to produce some test statistics. However, the
>>>> program does not seem able to use the temporary variables
>>>> that I've generated outside of it. For illustrative purposes consider the
>>>> following lines, where I define a program to summarize a tempvar (my real
>>>> problem is more complex and that's why I use a program).
>>>>
>>>> // ===================
>>>>
>>>> cap program drop progtempvar;
>>>> program define progtempvar;
>>>>    args progvars;
>>>>    di "`progvars'";
>>>>    su `TV`progvars'';
>>>> end;
>>>>
>>>> sysuse auto;
>>>> tempvar TVprice; ge `TVprice'= price;
>>>> progtempvar price;
>>>>
>>>> // ======================
>>>>
>>>> The program would not recognize the temporary variable. Is there a way to
>>>> get around this without creating a non-temporary variable?
>>>> (that is why  " reg price `TVprice' " work instead?) Thanks in advance,
>>>>
>>>> Mario
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