Help with Dyndoc

[Kola Adeniran]

Hello everyone, I was hoping someone could help me with an issue with dyndoc on Stata version 18.0

1. I have a .txt file called objective1.txt which contains my stata commands enclosed with dynamic tags.

2. One of the codes in the .txt file is to produce a table using the dtable command:

dtable, continuous(age, statistics(mean sd)) continuous(timeia, statistics(median q1 q3)) factor(agegroup gender finaldiagnosis iaduration, statistics(fvfrequency fvpercent)) by(fm) title("Supplementary Table 1")

3. When I run the stata command dyndoc objective1.txt, Stata stops at the above code and issues the ff error: no variables defined in option by ()

4. When I run the same code in Stata do-file (without dyndoc tags), it works well.

Can anyone please help me out - not sure what the error could be.

Thanks.

[Hua Peng (StataCorp)]

Here is a minimum example, the text file ex1.txt contains:

~~~
<<dd_do>>
use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/nhanes2l
dtable bpsystol age weight i.race i.hlthstat, by(rural) sample(N(%))
<</dd_do>>
~~~

dyndoc ex1.txt, replace

produces the following ex1.html:

<pre><code>. use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/nhanes2l
(Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey)

. dtable bpsystol age weight i.race i.hlthstat, by(rural) sample(N(%))

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                               Rural                      
                              Urban            Rural            Total     
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
N(%)                       6,548 (63.3%)    3,803 (36.7%)  10,351 (100.0%)
Systolic blood pressure 130.460 (23.526) 131.607 (22.980) 130.882 (23.333)
Age (years)              46.835 (17.484)  48.862 (16.666)  47.580 (17.215)
Weight (kg)              71.427 (15.363)  72.708 (15.314)  71.898 (15.356)
Race                                                                      
  White                    5,419 (82.8%)    3,646 (95.9%)    9,065 (87.6%)
  Black                      968 (14.8%)       118 (3.1%)    1,086 (10.5%)
  Other                       161 (2.5%)        39 (1.0%)       200 (1.9%)
Health status                                                             
  Excellent                1,609 (24.6%)      798 (21.0%)    2,407 (23.3%)
  Very good                1,713 (26.2%)      878 (23.1%)    2,591 (25.1%)
  Good                     1,878 (28.7%)    1,060 (27.9%)    2,938 (28.4%)
  Fair                       950 (14.5%)      720 (19.0%)    1,670 (16.2%)
  Poor                        389 (5.9%)       340 (9.0%)       729 (7.1%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

</code></pre>

[Kola Adeniran]

Hi Hua,

Thanks for your response. I actually have it written as:

~~~~
<<dd_do>>
dtable, continuous(age, statistics(mean sd)) continuous(timeia, statistics(median q1 q3)) factor(agegroup gender finaldiagnosis iaduration, statistics(fvfrequency fvpercent)) by(fm) title("Supplementary Table 1")
<</dd_do>>
~~~~

When i type the dyndoc objective1.txt in the command prompt, I get the error:
no variables defined
in option by()
r(111)

Here is a minimum example, the text file ex1.txt contains:

~~~
<<dd_do>>
use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/nhanes2l
dtable bpsystol age weight i.race i.hlthstat, by(rural) sample(N(%))
<</dd_do>>
~~~

dyndoc ex1.txt, replace

produces the following ex1.html:

<pre><code>. use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/nhanes2l
(Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey)

. dtable bpsystol age weight i.race i.hlthstat, by(rural) sample(N(%))

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rural
Urban Rural Total
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
N(%) 6,548 (63.3%) 3,803 (36.7%) 10,351 (100.0%)
Systolic blood pressure 130.460 (23.526) 131.607 (22.980) 130.882 (23.333)
Age (years) 46.835 (17.484) 48.862 (16.666) 47.580 (17.215)
Weight (kg) 71.427 (15.363) 72.708 (15.314) 71.898 (15.356)
Race
White 5,419 (82.8%) 3,646 (95.9%) 9,065 (87.6%)
Black 968 (14.8%) 118 (3.1%) 1,086 (10.5%)
Other 161 (2.5%) 39 (1.0%) 200 (1.9%)
Health status
Excellent 1,609 (24.6%) 798 (21.0%) 2,407 (23.3%)
Very good 1,713 (26.2%) 878 (23.1%) 2,591 (25.1%)
Good 1,878 (28.7%) 1,060 (27.9%) 2,938 (28.4%)
Fair 950 (14.5%) 720 (19.0%) 1,670 (16.2%)
Poor 389 (5.9%) 340 (9.0%) 729 (7.1%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

</code></pre>

[Hua Peng (StataCorp)]

Looks like there is no data loaded at the time dtable is called. What happens if you add describe

~~~~
<<dd_do>>
desc
dtable, continuous(age, statistics(mean sd)) continuous(timeia, statistics(median q1 q3)) factor(agegroup gender finaldiagnosis iaduration, statistics(fvfrequency fvpercent)) by(fm) title("Supplementary Table 1")
<</dd_do>>
~~~~

[Kola Adeniran]

You are absolutely right. Apparently, I had included the <<dd_ignore>> when i was reading in the dataset in a bid to hide sections of stata code that I did not want turning up on the html output file as I only wanted text and tables showing up on the final html output.

Looks like there is no data loaded at the time dtable is called. What happens if you add describe

~~~~
<<dd_do>>
desc
dtable, continuous(age, statistics(mean sd)) continuous(timeia, statistics(median q1 q3)) factor(agegroup gender finaldiagnosis iaduration, statistics(fvfrequency fvpercent)) by(fm) title("Supplementary Table 1")
<</dd_do>>
~~~~

[Hua Peng (StataCorp)]

I see. You can use <<dd_do: quietly>>, something like:

<<dd_do:quietly>>
use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/nhanes2l
<</dd_do>>

~~~
<<dd_do>>
dtable bpsystol age weight i.race i.hlthstat, by(rural) sample(N(%))
<</dd_do>>
~~~

[Kola Adeniran]

Great. Many thanks for your help.

I see. You can use <<dd_do: quietly>>, something like:

<<dd_do:quietly>>
use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/nhanes2l
<</dd_do>>

~~~
<<dd_do>>
dtable bpsystol age weight i.race i.hlthstat, by(rural) sample(N(%))
<</dd_do>>
~~~