ado files

[Jade Li]

Dear All,

I just have a quick question about ado-files. I know that I can use "which" to know whether the code is built-in stata or it is an ado. I am working on different servers and sometimes I need to send my ado-files to different servers so that i can run my code. But I could not find some ado-files. For example, I found a folder named "m" which includes the "mipolate". But I did not, however, find a folder "j" that includes "joinby". Does this mean that I would not be able to use joinby on a different computer/server (the thing is that I am not allowed to download or use the internet when I am using confidential data, I could only send them my ado-files).

Thank you,
JLi

[daniel klein]

Do not confuse built-in, ado, and community-contributed commands. mipolate is community-contributed and needs to be installed (from SSC); joinby is installed with Stata.

Generally, if which returns: built-in, that means that the command is written by StataCorp in complied C language. However, many (I would guess the vast majority of the) commands by StataCorp are implemented as ado. That is, StataCorp uses ado-files just as the community uses ado-files. The difference is that StataCorp ado-files are shipped with Stata and stored in the BASE directory while community-contributed ado-files must be installed and are typically stored in the PLUS (or PERSONAL) directory.

The which command is not useful to differentiate between ado-files written by StataCorp and community-contributed ado-files.* A better alternative is

ado

which lists (and manages) ado-files that were installed via the net (or ssc) commands, or, more generally community-contributed ado-files.


* Edit: StataCorp tends not to have author names in their version strings. Compare

. which joinby
C:\Program Files\Stata17\ado\base\j\joinby.ado
*! version 2.0.8  09feb2015 // <- no author name here

and

. which mipolate
C:\Users\klein\ado\plus\m\mipolate.ado
*! 1.2.0 NJC 2sep2015 // <- NJC listed as author

Note, however, that not all community-contributed commands have an author name in the version string (or include a version string at all).

[Jade Li]

Dear Daniel, Thank you very much for your answer. All clear!