.. index::
   single: Preparing the Compare Stub File
   single: Stub File

   
Preparing the *Compare* Stub File
=================================

To use Compare, one first prepares a "stub" file, which is a text file that provides a description of the series to be printed, the format for printing, titles, dates and other information.  Our stub files usually have the extension ".STB", but this is not necessary. 

The following is a sample of a basic stub file.  All commands in the sample, and many others, will be explained in this section. ::

   \dates 2007.0 2008.0 2007.1 2007.2 2007.3 2007.4 2008.1 2008.2 2008.3 2008.4
   ;
   ;               THE AMI MODEL
   ;
   &
   ;
   gnp$                       ;Gross National Product
   c$                         ;Personal Consumption
   pibg$                      ;Personal Income w/o Govt
   pidis$                     ;Personal Disposable Income
   taxrate*100                ;taxrate*100
   gtnis$                     ;Govt Trans, Net Int, Sub
   cpc$                       ;Consumption per Capita
   pop*1000                   ;Population (Millions)
   100*(gnp$-gnp$[1])/gnp$[1] ;GNP Growth Rate

.. . . image:: images/image006.png
   :alt: Compare Stub File