Re: st: ado Stata file

[David Kantor <kantor.d@att.net>]

At 11:00 AM 11/16/2012, Chiara Mussida wrote:
> Dear All,
> Does anybody know how to do transform a program written in a dofile
> (which contains an index) in an adofile, and therefore into a Stata
> command?

A few answers have appeared. I would add...

There are a few rules that are best to stick to when creating a 
command. That is, while any program can be made into a command (an 
ado), it is recommended to follow some "good programming" rules in 
doing so. I often allow myself to be a bit sloppy when just creating 
a program as part of a do-file, but try to make it "clean" when 
creating a command.

Don't reference or generate specific-named variables. Instead, use 
tempvars or names passed via a -syntax- statement. In either of these 
cases, you reference the names as local macros.
But this rule is sometimes violated, using names that start with an 
underscore. And then it is clearly documented. (Think of _merge.)

Don't clear the in-memory dataset without the user specifying a 
"clear" option that you put in the -syntax-.
Don't -replace- values without the user specifying a "replace" option 
that you put in the -syntax-. (Think of the -destring- command.)
Those last two items can be summarized as -- Try not to make it easy 
for a user to accidentally clobber data; make it so that a user needs 
to write specific command elements or options before a significant 
change in data occurs.

I'm sure there are more of these principles, and other List-members 
may chime in, but this should get you started.
HTH
--David

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