ASReml is designed to analyse just one model per run.
However, the analysis of a data set typically requires many runs,
fitting different models to different traits. It is often
convenient to have all these runs coded into a single
.as file and control the details from the command line
(or top job control line) using arguments. The highlevel qualifiers
!CYCLE
and DOPATH enable multiple analyses to be defined
and run in one execution of ASReml.
!CYCLE
!CYCLE list [ !JOIN ]
is a mechanism whereby ASReml can loop through a series of jobs,
writing the output to separate files or, if !JOIN is specified,
to a single file. The !CYCLE qualifier must
appear on its own line, starting in character 1. list is
a series of values which are substituted into the job wherever the $I
string appears. If !JOIN is not specified,
the current value from list
is built into the output filenames. For example
!CYCLE 0.4 0.5 0.6 !JOIN
20 0 mat2 1.9 I !GPF
would result in three runs and the results would be appended
to a single file.
!DOPATH and !PATH
The qualifiers !DOPART
and !PART have been extended
in release 2.0 and !DOPATH and
!PATH
are thought to be more appropriate names. Both spellings
can be used interchangably.
!DOPATH n
allows
several analyses to be coded and run sequentially without
having to edit the .as file between runs.
Which particular lines in the .as file are honoured
is controlled by the argument n
in conjunction with !PATH
(or !PART)
statements.
The argument (n) is often
given as $1 indicating that the actual path to use
is specified as the first
argument
on the command line.
The default value of n is 1.
!DOPATH n
can be located anywhere in the job
but if placed on the top job control line, it cannot have the form
!DOPATH $1 unless the arguments are on the command line
as the !DOPATH qualifier will be parsed before any job arguments
on the same line are parsed.
!PATH list
must be at the beginning of its own line anywhere in the job
after the DOPATH qualifier.
list contains the path numbers for the following lines
(until the next !PATH statement)
so that the following lines are honoured if any one of the listed path numbers
is active.
For example
...
mydata.asd !DOPATH 4
!PATH 2 4 6
...
situation where this might be useful is where it is necessary to run simpler models to get reasonable starting values for more complex variance models.
The more complex models are specified in later parts and the !CONTINUE command is used to pick up the previous estimates.