help dochar 
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Title

    dochar - Running Stata commands stored in characteristics

Syntax

        dochar evarname[charname] [["]text["]] , [self(varname)
                tempnames(special name list) loud tmpfile ]

Description

    dochar is a utility for running commands stored as characteristics, in
    Stata parlance, doing characteristics. This can be used to attach simple
    do files to the dataset or to particular variables. This can be of great
    use for data validation. Warning: this could seem a bit obscure, but as
    long as you understand macros well, it could be very useful. See 
    docharprog for the details of programming with chars.

Options

    self By default, dochar uses the local macro `self' to refer to the
        variable to which the characteristic is attached. It does this so
        that the command will still run if the variable is renamed.
        Sometimes, but rarely, it is worth using the self option to override
        the default with another variable name (for example, this is used for
        recursion within dochar).

    tempnames is a method for passing values of local macros to the commands
        stored in the characteristics. This facilitates dochar being able to
        be used from within do or ado files which have any locally named
        items. The tempnames are passed as a space-delimited list of items,
        each of which is of the form lclname:value. This means that passing
        the local macro bleen would be done as bleen:`bleen', and passing the
        temporary variable `foo' would be done as foo:`foo'.

    loud is primarily for debugging code which is run via dochar. It echos
        information at critical places, so that it is possible to see exactly
        what steps are being executed. Think of it as similar to using a set 
        trace on when running a do-file.

    tmpfile writes the characteristic as a temporary do file, and then
        executes the do file. This is worthwhile if the characteristic needs
        to have any commands which use curly braces ({ and }). If loud is
        specified, the temporary file is executed using do, so every step is
        echoed to the results window. If loud is not specified, then the
        temporary file is executed using the run command, so all output
        (including that from display statements) is silenced.

Examples

    . dochar bling[valid_check]
        runs the list of commands stored in the characteristic
        bling[error_check]

    . dochar foo[bar], tempnames(aVar:`aVar' aMacro:`aMacro')
        runs the list of commands stored in the characteristic foo[bar],
        allowing the use of the temporary variable aVar and local macro
        aMacro inside the mini-do-characteristic. Note that some care is
        needed when using local macros in characteristics. See docharprog for
        more direction.

Notes

    To see how these are used, take a peek at docharprog, ckvar_overview and 
    ckvaredit.

Also see

    Online: docharedit, docharprog

Author

    Bill Rising, StataCorp
    email: brising@stata.com
    web: http://homepage.mac.com/brising