If you’ve used the dm0082 package in Stata, you may have experienced the following error when using commands such as stnd_compname:
No pattern file found in ~/ado/plus/p/
This error indicates that your installation of the dm0082 package is missing several important ancillary files. The message above is from a Linux system, but you should see a similar message on Windows or macOS.
Installing the Ancillary Files
The ancillary files for dm0082 are not automatically placed in the correct location when they are installed. Instead, they are copied to your current working directory. The following pattern files will need to be moved from your current working directory to the folder referenced in the error message above:
P10_namecomp_patterns.csv P21_spchar_namespecialcases.csv P22_spchar_remove.csv P23_spchar_rplcwithspace.csv P30_std_entity.csv P40_std_commonwrd_name.csv P50_std_commonwrd_all.csv P60_std_numbers.csv P70_std_nesw.csv P81_std_smallwords_all.csv P82_std_smallwords_address.csv P90_entity_patterns.csv P110_std_streettypes.csv P120_pobox_patterns.csv P131_std_secondaryadd.csv P132_secondaryadd_patterns.csv
On Linux, the proper destination for these files will likely be ~/ado/plus/p/. If you are on Windows, it will likely be c:\ado\plus\p\.
You should also make sure that the name of each pattern file starts with a capital “P” rather than a lowercase “p”. The filenames may change to all lowercase when the ancillary files are downloaded. If that happens to you and you’re running Linux, you can use the rename command as described in this Ask Ubuntu post to quickly fix all the filenames at once.
Bonus Section: Finding the PLUS Directory in Stata
The ancillary files need to go in the proper subfolder of your PLUS directory. If you want to confirm whether the folder referenced in the error message is correct, you can find Stata’s PLUS directory by running the sysdir command:
. sysdir
STATA: /usr/local/stata17/
BASE: /usr/local/stata17/ado/base/
SITE: /usr/local/ado/
PLUS: ~/ado/plus/
PERSONAL: ~/ado/personal/
OLDPLACE: ~/ado/
From the Stata FAQ:
PLUS is where Stata installs ado-files from the SJ and STB and ado-files that you have downloaded from the Internet through the help system or with the net command.