Where is program_name stored?

[Amit Narnoli]

Dear All,

I have a program as follows:

program BSE_02052018
version 12
syntax, MAINdirectory(str)

.
.
.

I want to know how can I store the name BSE_02052018 in a local/global macro? I have similar programs which start with BSE_. I want to store the program names so as to use them within my programs. Another reason to do so is that I also want to extract the digits (02052018) and use them for analysis by removing BSE_ from the program name string.

Thanks,
Amit

[Maarten Buis]

The simplest solution is to create the macro the moment you create the program. I suppose you thought of that, and decided that that was not a solution. Now we need to know why. In general, we need to know more about what you are trying to do, e.g. why you came up with those funky names.

[Amit Narnoli]

Maarten, I thought of the simplest solution only i.e. creating a macro and store the program_name in it. But I could not do so.

Just to give you an idea of what I am trying to do:
I have a program which is named as BSE_02052018.ado. This program is to be run on BSE_02052018.dta. This program is nothing but a collection of various Stata commands which are to be run on the dta file. Similarly, I have 100s of files and 100s of corresponding .ado programs.
Before running each program, I need to confirm (match) datafile name with ado program name. I also need to use the date which is substring of the program name. So, to accomplish this, I need to store program_name in a macro to use it for matching purposes. I hope my query is clear to the readers.

I am just a Stata learner, so seeking help from Stata experts here. Any solution to this would be very helpful for me. Kindly let me know how to store program_name in a local/global macro?

Best
Amit

[daniel klein]

I still find it hard to follow your approach but the answer to your initial question is this: program_name of an ado-file is stored as program_name.ado wherever you have stored program_name.ado. Stata will complain if the (first) program defined in program_name.ado is called anything other than program_name if you try and run that program.

From what you describe, I am guessing that you probably have (or want to have) something like

local dta_files : dir "directory" files *.dta
foreach dta of local dta_files {
    local program_name : subinstr local dta ".dta" ""
    `program_name'
}

If this is what you want, you do not actually need to define programs in ado-files; you would rather have do-files and put the above code into master.do.

Best
Daniel