Should be easy, but hours of failure . . . (Another "Where can I find this ado?" question)

[Samuel R. Lucas]

So, about two years ago I got a new machine. This necessitated moving (or, mostly updating) software. A few little-used programs and program features didn't make the move. Alas, a stata ado, spmap, did not make it, probably because I used it once 16 years ago. Alas, I need it again. And for the life of me I cannot get -net install pkgname- to find the package. This is the second time I've gone back to find a little-used (by me) ado and found stata seems to have made some kind of change that stymies my effort. I've been trying to install ado packages long enough, searched the forum archive and old statalist, tried to debug my one line of code (but, admittedly, I've worked on it so long I may be missing something really simple), stood up and turned around three times in an effort to appease our AI gods . . . but I cannot seem to find (and thus install) the program. I am using stata 17. Has spmap been somehow integrated in stata under some other name (because the command doesn't work on my installation)? Has it vanished (seemingly not, as I found others asking questions about it in 2025). I know asking this it is going to be something really simple I just cannot see. But desperate times call for (among other things) a large dose of humility coupled with a reluctant but resigned willingness to trouble thousands of other people. (Please accept my apology). Please help me out here. 1)Where can I find the spmap ado? and 2)What's up with ados moving such that they are hard to find (can't be found?) even through channels stata indicated were the ones to use? Thanks a bunch for any help anyone can offer!

[Clyde Schechter]

The -spmap- package is available from SSC. -ssc install spmap-.

[Rich Goldstein]

more generally, note that this is what the -search- command is for (or, if you have an old version of Stata, the -findit- command); see

help search

[Samuel R. Lucas]

Thanks for the help. Found it. . . . I tried ssc, net, find, findit, search, query, in many combinations. I started with what I had done before, which was net install. No luck. As I tried various combinations, I created a maze (which is why I did not submit my work). Thanks to both Rich and Clyde. Alas, Rich's post shows the problem. Sometimes, more than one option is one or more too many. As research shows, at some point more choice reduces rather than boosts happiness/productivity. I think this is a case. Fortunately, with the help of Rich and Clyde, I can now be both! Thanks!

[Nick Cox]

Given that

ssc desc spmap

(usually) finds what is being looked for, I suspect that a missing detail in this story was that SSC was briefly down, which does happen.

Note that what search finds is based largely on an internet trawl every day: it's not looking at a permanently maintained archive outside Stata itself, but what was seen in a snapshot search.

So if something you vaguely remember but think is on SSC can't be found, check whether something you do know well from SSC can be seen. If you can't see that, then SSC is down.