option "" incorrectly specified

[Rosie Zou]

Hello, I am having trouble with my Stata program and I do not know what I did wrong...

The source code is below:

program define myProg, eclass
    version 14.0
    syntax varlist(min=2) [if] [in], [,routine(str)]
    if (`routine' == "FirstRoutine") {
        di "call the first routine"
    } else if (`routine' == "SecondRoutine") {
        di "call the second routine"
    } else {
        di "no such routine available"
    }
end

As you can see here, I am simply trying to parse in the correct options. However, after I loaded the auto.dta data, I typed

myProg make mpg, routine = "FirstRoutine"

in the Stata console and got back an error message saying "option routine incorrectly specified". What seems to be the issue here? Any help is appreciated

[Nick Cox]

The program needs some fixes, minimally

program define myProg, eclass
    version 14.0
    syntax varlist(min=2) [if] [in] [,routine(str)]
    if "`routine'" == "FirstRoutine" {
        di "call the first routine"
    }
    else if "`routine'" == "SecondRoutine" {
        di "call the second routine"
    }
    else {
        di "no such routine available"
    }
end

As for

 myProg make mpg, routine = "FirstRoutine"

when did you ever call a Stata option like that? You're thinking of some other language.

myProg make mpg, routine(FirstRoutine)

(The logic of the first program is strange, but no doubt it's just made up.)

[William Lisowski]

The following version functions as you hoped. Note several changes throughout.

program define myProg, eclass
    version 14.0
    syntax varlist(min=2) [if] [in], [,routine(str)]
    if ("`routine'" == "FirstRoutine") {
        di "call the first routine"
        }
    else if ("`routine'" == "SecondRoutine") {
        di "call the second routine"
        }
    else {
        di "no such routine available"
        }
end
sysuse auto, clear
myProg make mpg, routine("FirstRoutine")

[Rosie Zou]

Thank you for the help!