GETTING STARTED WITH STATA

®
FOR WINDOWS
RELEASE 18

A Stata Press Publication

StataCorp LLC
College Station, Texas
 ®
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Version 18

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Contents

1 Introducing Stata—sample session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 The Stata user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3 Using the Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4 Getting help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5 Opening and saving Stata datasets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6 Using the Data Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7 Using the Variables Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
8 Importing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
9 Labeling data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
10 Listing data and basic command syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
11 Creating new variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
12 Deleting variables and observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
14 Graphing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
15 Editing graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
16 Saving and printing results by using logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
17 Setting font and window preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
18 Learning more about Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
A Troubleshooting Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
B Advanced Stata usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
C More on Stata for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Subject index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

i
Cross-referencing the documentation
When reading this manual, you will find references to other Stata manuals, for example,
[U] 27 Overview of Stata estimation commands; [R] regress; and [D] reshape. The first example
is a reference to chapter 27, Overview of Stata estimation commands, in the User’s Guide; the second
is a reference to the regress entry in the Base Reference Manual; and the third is a reference to the
reshape entry in the Data Management Reference Manual.
All the manuals in the Stata Documentation have a shorthand notation:

[GSM] Getting Started with Stata for Mac

[GSU] Getting Started with Stata for Unix
[GSW] Getting Started with Stata for Windows
[U] Stata User’s Guide
[R] Stata Base Reference Manual
[ADAPT] Stata Adaptive Designs: Group Sequential Trials Reference Manual
[BAYES] Stata Bayesian Analysis Reference Manual
[BMA] Stata Bayesian Model Averaging Reference Manual
[CAUSAL] Stata Causal Inference and Treatment-Effects Estimation Reference Manual
[CM] Stata Choice Models Reference Manual
[D] Stata Data Management Reference Manual
[DSGE] Stata Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Models Reference Manual
[ERM] Stata Extended Regression Models Reference Manual
[FMM] Stata Finite Mixture Models Reference Manual
[FN] Stata Functions Reference Manual
[G] Stata Graphics Reference Manual
[IRT] Stata Item Response Theory Reference Manual
[LASSO] Stata Lasso Reference Manual
[XT] Stata Longitudinal-Data/Panel-Data Reference Manual
[META] Stata Meta-Analysis Reference Manual
[ME] Stata Multilevel Mixed-Effects Reference Manual
[MI] Stata Multiple-Imputation Reference Manual
[MV] Stata Multivariate Statistics Reference Manual
[PSS] Stata Power, Precision, and Sample-Size Reference Manual
[P] Stata Programming Reference Manual
[RPT] Stata Reporting Reference Manual
[SP] Stata Spatial Autoregressive Models Reference Manual
[SEM] Stata Structural Equation Modeling Reference Manual
[SVY] Stata Survey Data Reference Manual
[ST] Stata Survival Analysis Reference Manual
[TABLES] Stata Customizable Tables and Collected Results Reference Manual
[TS] Stata Time-Series Reference Manual
[I] Stata Index

[M] Mata Reference Manual

ii
About this manual
This manual discusses Stata for Windows○R . Stata for Mac○R users should see Getting Started with
Stata for Mac; Stata for Unix○R users should see Getting Started with Stata for Unix. This manual is
intended both for people who are completely new to Stata and for experienced Stata users new to Stata
for Windows. Previous Stata users will also find it helpful as a tutorial on some new features in Stata for
Windows.
Following the numbered chapters are three appendixes with information specific to Stata for Windows.
We provide several types of technical support to registered Stata users. [GSW] 4 Getting help de-
scribes the resources available to help you learn about Stata’s commands and features. One of these
resources is the Stata website (https://www.stata.com), where you will find answers to frequently asked
questions (FAQs) as well as other useful information. If you still have questions after looking at the
Stata website and the other resources described in [GSW] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet
functionality, you can contact us as described in [U] 3.8 Technical support.

Using this manual

The new user will get the most out of this book by treating it as an exercise book, working through
each example at the computer. The material builds, so material from earlier chapters will often be used
in later chapters. Bear in mind that Stata is a rich and deep statistical package—just as statistics itself
is rich and deep. The time spent working the examples will be repaid with dividends when doing true
statistical analyses.
The experienced user may still have something to learn from this manual despite its name. We suggest
looking through the chapters to see if there is anything new or forgotten.

iii
1 Introducing Stata—sample session

Introducing Stata
This chapter will run through a sample work session, introducing you to a few of the basic tasks
that can be done in Stata, such as opening a dataset, investigating the contents of the dataset, using some
descriptive statistics, making some graphs, and doing a simple regression analysis. As you would expect,
we will only brush the surface of many of these topics. This approach should give you a sample of what
Stata can do and how Stata works. There will be brief explanations along the way, with references to
chapters later in this book as well as to the system help and other Stata manuals. We will run through
the session by using both menus and dialogs and Stata’s commands so that you can become familiar
with them both. If you see that your menus and dialogs are not in English, we recommend that you
(temporarily) change the locale used by Stata to English, so that you can work along with the examples.
See [P] set locale ui for how to do this.
Take a seat at your computer, put on some good music, and work along with the book.

Sample session
The dataset that we will use for this session is a set of data about vintage 1978 automobiles sold in
the United States.
To follow along by pointing and clicking, note that the menu items are given by Menu > Menu item
> Submenu item > etc. To follow along by using the Command window, type the commands that follow
a dot (.) in the boxed listings below into the small window labeled Command. When there is something
to note about the structure of a command, it will be pointed out as a “Syntax note”.
Start by loading the automobile dataset, which is included with Stata. Use the menus to do this:
1. Select File > Example datasets....
2. Click on Example datasets installed with Stata.
3. Click on use for auto.dta.
The result of this command is fourfold:
• The following output appears in the large Results window:
 
. sysuse auto
(1978 automobile data)
 
The output consists of a command and its result. The command, sysuse auto.dta, is bold and
follows the dot (.). The result, (1978 automobile data), is in the standard face here and is a
brief description of the dataset.
Note: If a command intrigues you, you can type help commandname in the Command window to
find help. If you want to explore at any time, Help > Search... can be informative.
• The same command, sysuse auto.dta, appears in the tall History window to the left. The History
window keeps track of all commands Stata has run, successful and unsuccessful. The commands
can then easily be rerun. See [GSW] 2 The Stata user interface for more information.

1
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 2

• A series of variables appears in the small Variables window to the upper right.
• Some information about make, the first variable in the dataset, appears in the small Properties
window to the lower right.
You could have opened the dataset by typing sysuse auto in the Command window and pressing
Enter. Try this now. sysuse is a command that loads (uses) example (system) datasets. As you will see
during this session, Stata commands are often simple enough that it is faster to use them directly. This
will be especially true once you become familiar with the commands you use the most in your daily use
of Stata.
Syntax note: In the above example, sysuse is the Stata command, whereas auto is the name of a
Stata data file.

Simple data management

We can get a quick glimpse at the data by browsing them in the Data Editor. This can be done by
clicking on the Data Editor (Browse) button, , or by selecting Data > Data Editor > Data Editor
(Browse) from the menus or by typing the command browse.
No command is issued when clicking on either Data Editor button because opening the Data Editor
has no effect on the dataset or any possible analysis.
When the Data Editor window opens, you can see that Stata regards the data as one rectangular ta-
ble. This is true for all Stata datasets. The columns represent variables, whereas the rows represent
observations. The variables have somewhat descriptive names, whereas the observations are numbered.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 3

The data are displayed in multiple colors—at first glance, it appears that the variables listed in black are
numeric, whereas those that are in colors are text. This is worth investigating. Click on a cell under the
make variable: the input box at the top displays the make of the car. Scroll to the right until you see the
foreign variable. Click on one of its cells. Although the cell may display “Domestic”, the input box
displays a 0. This shows that Stata can store categorical data as numbers but display human-readable
text. This is done by what Stata calls value labels. Finally, under the rep78 variable, which looks to be
numeric, there are some cells containing just a dot (.). The dots correspond to missing values.
Looking at the data in this fashion, though comfortable, lends little information about the dataset. It
would be useful for us to get more details about what the data are and how the data are stored. Close the
Data Editor by clicking on its close button.
We can see the structure of the dataset by describing its contents. This can be done either by going
to Data > Describe data > Describe data in memory or in a file in the menus and clicking on OK
or by typing describe in the Command window and pressing Enter. Regardless of which method you
choose, you will get the same result:
 
. describe
Contains data from C:\Program Files\Stata18/ado/base/a/auto.dta
Observations: 74 1978 automobile data
Variables: 12 13 Apr 2022 17:45
(_dta has notes)

Variable Storage Display Value

name type format label Variable label

make str18 %-18s Make and model

price int %8.0gc Price
mpg int %8.0g Mileage (mpg)
rep78 int %8.0g Repair record 1978
headroom float %6.1f Headroom (in.)
trunk int %8.0g Trunk space (cu. ft.)
weight int %8.0gc Weight (lbs.)
length int %8.0g Length (in.)
turn int %8.0g Turn circle (ft.)
displacement int %8.0g Displacement (cu. in.)
gear_ratio float %6.2f Gear ratio
foreign byte %8.0g origin Car origin

Sorted by: foreign

 

At the top of the listing, some information is given about the dataset, such as where it is stored on
disk and when the dataset was last saved. The bold 1978 automobile data is the short description that
appeared when the dataset was opened and is referred to as a data label by Stata. The phrase dta has
notes informs us that there are notes attached to the dataset. We can see what notes there are by typing
notes in the Command window:
 
. notes
_dta:
1. From Consumer Reports with permission
 
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 4

Here we see a short note about the source of the data.

Looking back at the listing from describe, we can see that Stata keeps track of more than just the
raw data. Each variable has the following:
• A variable name, which is what you call the variable when communicating with Stata. Variable
names are one type of Stata name. See [U] 11.3 Naming conventions.
• A storage type, which is the way Stata stores its data. For our purposes, it is enough to know that
types like, say, str# are string, or text, variables, whereas all others in this dataset are numeric.
While there are none in this dataset, Stata also allows arbitrarily long strings, or strLs. strLs can
also contain binary information. See [U] 12.4 Strings.
• A display format, which controls how Stata displays the data in tables. See [U] 12.5 Formats:
Controlling how data are displayed.
• A value label (possibly). This is the mechanism that allows Stata to store numerical data while
displaying text. See [GSW] 9 Labeling data and [U] 12.6.3 Value labels.
• A variable label, which is what you call the variable when communicating with other people. Stata
uses the variable label when making tables, as we will see.
A dataset is far more than simply the data it contains. It is also information that makes the data usable
by someone other than the original creator.
Although describing the data tells us something about the structure of the data, it says little about the
data themselves. The data can be summarized by clicking on Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests
> Summary and descriptive statistics > Summary statistics and clicking on the OK button. You could
also type summarize in the Command window and press Enter. The result is a table containing summary
statistics about all the variables in the dataset:
 
. summarize
Variable Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max

make 0
price 74 6165.257 2949.496 3291 15906
mpg 74 21.2973 5.785503 12 41
rep78 69 3.405797 .9899323 1 5
headroom 74 2.993243 .8459948 1.5 5

trunk 74 13.75676 4.277404 5 23

weight 74 3019.459 777.1936 1760 4840
length 74 187.9324 22.26634 142 233
turn 74 39.64865 4.399354 31 51
displacement 74 197.2973 91.83722 79 425

gear_ratio 74 3.014865 .4562871 2.19 3.89

foreign 74 .2972973 .4601885 0 1
 

From this simple summary, we can learn a bit about the data. First of all, the prices are nothing like
today’s car prices—of course, these cars are now antiques. We can see that the gas mileages are not
particularly good. Automobile aficionados can get a feel for other esoteric characteristics.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 5

There are two other important items here:

• The make variable is listed as having no observations. It really has no numerical observations
because it is a string (text) variable.
• The rep78 variable has five fewer observations than the other numerical variables. This implies
that rep78 has five missing values.
Although we could use the summarize and describe commands to get a bird’s eye view of the
dataset, Stata has a command that gives a good in-depth description of the structure, contents, and values
of the variables: the codebook command. Either type codebook in the Command window and press
Enter or navigate the menus to Data > Describe data > Describe data contents (codebook) and click
on OK. Look over the output to see that much can be learned from this simple command. You can scroll
back in the Results window to see earlier results, if need be. We will focus on the output for make, rep78,
and foreign.
To start our investigation, we would like to run the codebook command on just one variable, say,
make. We can do this, as usual, with menus or the command line. To get the codebook output for make
with the menus, start by navigating to Data > Describe data > Describe data contents (codebook).
When the dialog appears, there are multiple ways to tell Stata to consider only the make variable:
• We could type make into the Variables field.
• The Variables field is a combo-box control that accepts variable names. Clicking on the drop
triangle to the right of the Variables field displays a list of the variables from the current dataset.
Selecting a variable from the list will, in this case, enter the variable name into the edit field.
A much easier solution is to type codebook make in the Command window and then press Enter. The
result is informative:
 
. codebook make

make Make and model

Type: String (str18), but longest is str17

Unique values: 74 Missing ””: 0/74
Examples: "Cad. Deville"
"Dodge Magnum"
"Merc. XR-7"
"Pont. Catalina"
Warning: Variable has embedded blanks.
 

The first line of the output tells us the variable name (make) and the variable label (Make and model).
The variable is stored as a string (which is another way of saying “text”) with a maximum length of
18 characters, though a size of only 17 characters would be enough. All the values are unique, so if
need be, make could be used as an identifier for the observations—something that is often useful when
putting together data from multiple sources or when trying to weed out errors from the dataset. There
are no missing values, but there are blanks within the makes. This latter fact could be useful if we were
expecting make to be a one-word string variable.
Syntax note: Telling the codebook command to run on the make variable is an example of using a
varlist in Stata’s syntax.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 6

Looking at the foreign variable can teach us about value labels. We would like to look at the code-
book output for this variable, and on the basis of our latest experience, it would be easy to type codebook
foreign into the Command window (from here on, we will not explicitly say to press the Enter key) to
get the following output:
 
. codebook foreign

foreign Car origin

Type: Numeric (byte)

Label: origin
Range: [0,1] Units: 1
Unique values: 2 Missing .: 0/74
Tabulation: Freq. Numeric Label
52 0 Domestic
22 1 Foreign
 

We can glean that foreign is an indicator variable because its only values are 0 and 1. The variable
has a value label that displays Domestic instead of 0 and Foreign instead of 1. There are two advantages
of storing the data in this form:
• Storing the variable as a byte takes less memory because each observation uses 1 byte instead of the
8 bytes needed to store “Domestic”. This is important in large datasets. See [U] 12.2.2 Numeric
storage types.
• As an indicator variable, it is easy to incorporate into statistical models. See [U] 26 Working with
categorical data and factor variables.
Finally, we can learn a little about a poorly labeled variable with missing values by looking at the
rep78 variable. Typing codebook rep78 into the Command window yields
 
. codebook rep78

rep78 Repair record 1978

Type: Numeric (int)

Range: [1,5] Units: 1
Unique values: 5 Missing .: 5/74
Tabulation: Freq. Value
2 1
8 2
30 3
18 4
11 5
5 .
 

rep78 appears to be a categorical variable, but because of lack of documentation, we do not know what
the numbers mean. (To see how we would label the values, see Changing data in [GSW] 6 Using the Data
Editor and see [GSW] 9 Labeling data.) This variable has five missing values, meaning that there are
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 7

five observations for which the repair record is not recorded. We could use the Data Editor to investigate
these five observations, but we will do this by using the Command window only because doing so is
much simpler.
The command equivalent to clicking on the Data Editor (Browse) button is browse. We would like
to browse only those observations for which rep78 is missing, so we could type
 
. browse if missing(rep78)
 

From this, we see that the . entries are indeed missing values. The . is the default numerical missing
value; Stata also allows .a, . . . , .z as user missing values, but we do not have any in our dataset. See
[U] 12.2.1 Missing values. Close the Data Editor after you are satisfied with this statement.
Syntax note: Using the if qualifier above is what allowed us to look at a subset of the observations.
Looking through the data lends no clues about why these particular data are missing. We decide to
check the source of the data to see if the missing values were originally missing or if they were omitted
in error. Listing the makes of the cars whose repair records are missing will be all we need because we
saw earlier that the values of make are unique. This can be done with the menus and a dialog:
1. Select Data > Describe data > List data.
2. Click on the drop triangle to the right of the Variables field to show the variable names.
3. Click on make to enter it into the Variables field.
4. Click on the by/if/in tab in the dialog.
5. Type missing(rep78) into the If: (expression) box.
6. Click on Submit. Stata executes the proper command but the dialog remains open. Submit is
useful when experimenting, exploring, or building complex commands. We will primarily use
Submit in the examples. You may click on OK in its place if you like, and it will close the dialog
box.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 8

The same ends could be achieved by typing list make if missing(rep78) in the Command window.
The latter is easier once you know that the command list is used for listing observations. In any case,
here is the output:
 
. list make if missing(rep78)

make

3. AMC Spirit
7. Buick Opel
45. Plym. Sapporo
51. Pont. Phoenix
64. Peugeot 604

 

At this point, we should find the original reference to see if the data were truly missing or if they could
be resurrected. See [GSW] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax for more information about all
that can be done with the list command.
Syntax note: This command uses two new concepts for Stata commands—the if qualifier and the
missing() function. The if qualifier restricts the observations on which the command runs to only
those observations for which the expression is true. See [U] 11.1.3 if exp. The missing() function tests
each observation to see if it contains a missing value. See [FN] Programming functions.
Now that we have a good idea about the underlying dataset, we can investigate the data themselves.

Descriptive statistics
We saw above that the summarize command gave brief summary statistics about all the variables.
Suppose now that we became interested in the prices while summarizing the data because they seemed
fantastically low (it was 1978, after all). To get an in-depth look at the price variable, we can use the
menus and a dialog:
1. Select Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests > Summary and descriptive statistics > Sum-
mary statistics.
2. Enter or select price in the Variables field.
3. Select Display additional statistics.
4. Click on Submit.
Syntax note: As can be seen from the Results window, typing summarize price, detail will get the
same result. The portion after the comma contains options for Stata commands; hence, detail is an
example of an option.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 9

 
. summarize price, detail
Price

Percentiles Smallest
1% 3291 3291
5% 3748 3299
10% 3895 3667 Obs 74
25% 4195 3748 Sum of wgt. 74
50% 5006.5 Mean 6165.257
Largest Std. dev. 2949.496
75% 6342 13466
90% 11385 13594 Variance 8699526
95% 13466 14500 Skewness 1.653434
99% 15906 15906 Kurtosis 4.819188
 

From the output, we can see that the median price of the cars in the dataset is only $5,006.50! We can
also see that the four most expensive cars are all priced between $13,400 and $16,000. If we wished to
browse the most expensive cars (and gain some experience with features of the Data Editor), we could
start by clicking on the Data Editor (Browse) button, .

Once the Data Editor is open, we can click on the Filter observations button, , to bring up the
Filter observations dialog. We can look at the expensive cars by putting price > 13000 in the Filter by
expression field:
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 10

Pressing the Apply filter button filters the data, and we can see that the expensive cars are two Cadil-
lacs and two Lincolns, which were not designed for gas mileage:

We now decide to turn our attention to foreign cars and repairs because as we glanced through the data,
it appeared that the foreign cars had better repair records. (We do not know exactly what the categories
1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 mean, but we know the Chevy Monza was known for breaking down.) Let’s start by
looking at the proportion of foreign cars in the dataset along with the proportion of cars with each type of
repair record. We can do this with one-way tables. The table for foreign cars can be done with menus
and a dialog starting with Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests > Frequency tables > One-way
table and then choosing the variable foreign in the Categorical variable field. Clicking on Submit
yields
 
. tabulate foreign
Car origin Freq. Percent Cum.

Domestic 52 70.27 70.27

Foreign 22 29.73 100.00

Total 74 100.00
 

We see that roughly 70% of the cars in the dataset are domestic, whereas 30% are foreign. The value
labels are used to make the table so that the output is nicely readable.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 11

Syntax note: We also see that this one-way table could be made by using the tabulate command
together with one variable, foreign. Making a one-way table for the repair records is simple—it will
be simpler if done with the Command window. Typing tabulate rep78 yields
 
. tabulate rep78
Repair
record 1978 Freq. Percent Cum.

1 2 2.90 2.90
2 8 11.59 14.49
3 30 43.48 57.97
4 18 26.09 84.06
5 11 15.94 100.00

Total 69 100.00
 

We can see that most cars have repair records of 3 and above, though the lack of value labels makes
us unsure what a “3” means. Take our word for it that 1 means a poor repair record and 5 means a good
repair record. The five missing values are indirectly evident because the total number of observations
listed is 69 rather than 74.
These two one-way tables do not help us compare the repair records of foreign and domestic cars. A
two-way table would help greatly, which we can get by using the menus and a dialog:
1. Select Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests > Frequency tables > Two-way table with
measures of association.
2. Choose rep78 as the Row variable.
3. Choose foreign as the Column variable.
4. It would be nice to have the percentages within the foreign variable, so check the Within-row
relative frequencies checkbox.
5. Click on Submit.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 12

Here is the resulting output:

 
. tabulate rep78 foreign, row

Key

frequency
row percentage

Repair
record Car origin
1978 Domestic Foreign Total

1 2 0 2
100.00 0.00 100.00

2 8 0 8
100.00 0.00 100.00

3 27 3 30
90.00 10.00 100.00

4 9 9 18
50.00 50.00 100.00

5 2 9 11
18.18 81.82 100.00

Total 48 21 69
69.57 30.43 100.00
 

The output indicates that foreign cars are generally much better than domestic cars when it comes to
repairs. If you like, you could repeat the previous dialog and try some of the hypothesis tests available
from the dialog. We will abstain.
Syntax note: We see that typing the command tabulate rep78 foreign, row would have given us
the same table. Thus using tabulate with two variables yields a two-way table. It makes sense that
row is an option—we went out of our way to check it in the dialog. Using the row option allows us to
change the behavior of the tabulate command from its default.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 13

Continuing our exploratory tour of the data, we would like to compare gas mileages between foreign
and domestic cars, starting by looking at the summary statistics for each group by itself. A direct way to
do this would be to use if qualifiers to summarize mpg for each of the two values of foreign separately:
 
. summarize mpg if foreign==0
Variable Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max

mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34

. summarize mpg if foreign==1
Variable Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max

mpg 22 24.77273 6.611187 14 41

 

It appears that foreign cars get somewhat better gas mileage—we will test this soon.
Syntax note: We needed to use a double equal sign (==) for testing equality. The double equal sign
could be familiar to you if you have programmed before. If it is unfamiliar, be aware that it is a common
source of errors when initially using Stata. Thinking of equality as “exactly equal” can cut down on
typing errors.
There are two other methods that we could have used to produce these summary statistics. These
methods are worth knowing because they are less error-prone. The first method duplicates the concept
of what we just did by exploiting Stata’s ability to run a command on each of a series of nonoverlapping
subsets of the dataset. To use the menus and a dialog, do the following:
1. Select Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests > Summary and descriptive statistics > Sum-
mary statistics and click on the Reset button, .
2. Select mpg in the Variables field.
3. Select the Standard display option (if it is not already selected).
4. Click on the by/if/in tab.
5. Check the Repeat command by groups checkbox.
6. Select or type foreign in the Variables that define groups field.
7. Submit the command.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 14

You can see that the results match those from above. They have a better appearance than the two com-
mands above because the value labels Domestic and Foreign are used rather than the numerical values.
The method is more appealing because the results were produced without needing to know the possible
values of the grouping variable ahead of time.
 
. by foreign, sort: summarize mpg

-> foreign = Domestic

Variable Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max

mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34

-> foreign = Foreign

Variable Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max

mpg 22 24.77273 6.611187 14 41

 

Syntax note: There is something different about the equivalent command that appears above: it con-
tains a prefix command called a by prefix. The by prefix has its own option, namely, sort, to ensure
that like members are adjacent to each other before being summarized. The by prefix command is im-
portant for understanding data manipulation and working with subpopulations within Stata. Make good
note of this example, and consult [U] 11.1.2 by varlist: and [U] 13.7 Explicit subscripting for more
information. Stata has other prefix commands for specialized treatment of commands, as explained in
[U] 11.1.10 Prefix commands.
The third method for tabulating the differences in gas mileage across the cars’origins involves thinking
about the structure of desired output. We need a one-way table of automobile types (foreign versus
domestic) within which we see information about gas mileages. Looking through the menus yields the
menu item Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests > Other tables > Table of means, std. dev., and
frequencies. Selecting this, entering foreign for Variable 1 and mpg for the Summarize variable, and
submitting the command yields a nice table:
 
. tabulate foreign, summarize(mpg)
Summary of Mileage (mpg)
Car origin Mean Std. dev. Freq.

Domestic 19.826923 4.7432972 52

Foreign 24.772727 6.6111869 22

Total 21.297297 5.7855032 74

 

The equivalent command is evidently tabulate foreign, summarize(mpg).

Syntax note: This is a one-way table, so tabulate uses one variable. The variable being summarized
is passed to the tabulate command with an option. Though we will not do it here, the summarize()
option can also be used with two-way tables.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 15

A simple hypothesis test

We would like to run a hypothesis test for the difference in the mean gas mileages. Under the menus,
Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests > Classical tests of hypotheses > t test (mean-comparison
test) leads to the proper dialog. Select the Two-sample using groups radio button, enter mpg for the
Variable name and foreign for the Group variable name, and Submit the dialog. The results are
 
. ttest mpg, by(foreign)
Two-sample t test with equal variances

Group Obs Mean Std. err. Std. dev. [95% conf. interval]

Domestic 52 19.82692 .657777 4.743297 18.50638 21.14747

Foreign 22 24.77273 1.40951 6.611187 21.84149 27.70396

Combined 74 21.2973 .6725511 5.785503 19.9569 22.63769

diff -4.945804 1.362162 -7.661225 -2.230384

diff = mean(Domestic) - mean(Foreign) t = -3.6308

H0: diff = 0 Degrees of freedom = 72
Ha: diff < 0 Ha: diff != 0 Ha: diff > 0
Pr(T < t) = 0.0003 Pr(|T| > |t|) = 0.0005 Pr(T > t) = 0.9997
 

From this, we could conclude that the mean gas mileage for foreign cars is different from that of
domestic cars (though we really ought to have wanted to test this before snooping through the data). We
can also conclude that the command, ttest mpg, by(foreign), is easy enough to remember. Feel free
to experiment with unequal variances, various approximations to the number of degrees of freedom, and
the like.
Syntax note: The by() option used here is not the same as the by prefix command used earlier.
Although it has a similar conceptual meaning, its usage is different because it is a particular option for
the ttest command.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 16

Descriptive statistics—correlation matrices

We now change our focus from exploring categorical relationships to exploring numerical relation-
ships: we would like to know if there is a correlation between miles per gallon and weight. We select
Statistics > Summaries, tables, and tests > Summary and descriptive statistics > Correlations and
covariances in the menus. Entering mpg and weight, either by clicking or by typing, and then submit-
ting the command yields
 
. correlate mpg weight
(obs=74)
mpg weight

mpg 1.0000
weight -0.8072 1.0000
 

The equivalent command for this is natural: correlate mpg weight. There is a negative correlation,
which is not surprising because heavier cars should be harder to push about.
We could see how the correlation compares for foreign and domestic cars by using our knowledge of
the by prefix. We can reuse the correlate dialog or use the menus as before if the dialog is closed. Click
on the by/if/in tab, check the Repeat command by groups checkbox, and enter the foreign variable
to define the groups. As done on page 3, a simple by foreign, sort: prefix in front of our previous
command would work, too:
 
. by foreign, sort: correlate mpg weight

-> foreign = Domestic

(obs=52)
mpg weight

mpg 1.0000
weight -0.8759 1.0000

-> foreign = Foreign

(obs=22)
mpg weight

mpg 1.0000
weight -0.6829 1.0000
 

We see from this that the correlation is not as strong among the foreign cars.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 17

Syntax note: Although we used the correlate command to look at the correlation of two variables,
Stata can make correlation matrices for an arbitrary number of variables:
 
. correlate mpg weight length turn displacement
(obs=74)
mpg weight length turn displa~t

mpg 1.0000
weight -0.8072 1.0000
length -0.7958 0.9460 1.0000
turn -0.7192 0.8574 0.8643 1.0000
displacement -0.7056 0.8949 0.8351 0.7768 1.0000
 

This can be useful, for example, when investigating collinearity among predictor variables.

Graphing data
We have found several things in our investigations so far: We know that the average MPG of domestic
and foreign cars differs. We have learned that domestic and foreign cars differ in other ways as well,
such as in frequency-of-repair record. We found a negative correlation between MPG and weight—as we
would expect—but the correlation appears stronger for domestic cars.
We would now like to examine, with an eye toward modeling, the relationship between MPG and
weight, starting with a graph. We can start with a scatterplot of mpg against weight. The command for
this is simple: scatter mpg weight. Using the menus requires a few steps because the graphs in Stata
may be customized heavily.
1. Select Graphics > Twoway graph (scatter, line, etc.).
2. Click on the Create... button.
3. Select the Basic plots radio button (if it is not already selected).
4. Select Scatter as the basic plot type (if it is not already selected).
5. Select mpg as the Y variable and weight as the X variable.
6. Click on the Submit button.
The Results window shows the command that was issued from the menu:
 
. twoway (scatter mpg weight)
 
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 18

The command issued when the dialog was submitted is a bit more complex than the command sug-
gested above. There is good reason for this: the more complex structure allows combining and overlaying
graphs, as we will soon see. In any case, the graph that appears is




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We see the negative correlation in the graph, though the relationship appears to be nonlinear.
Note: When you draw a graph, the Graph window appears, probably covering up your Results win-
dow. Click on the main Stata window to get the Results window back on top. Want to see the graph
again? Click on the Graph button, . See The Graph button in [GSW] 14 Graphing data for more
information about the Graph button.
We would now like to see how the different correlations for foreign and domestic cars are manifested
in scatterplots. It would be nice to see a scatterplot for each type of car, along with a scatterplot for all
the data.
Syntax note: Because we are looking at subgroups, this looks as if it is a job for the by prefix. Let’s
see if this is what we really should use.
Start as before:
1. Select Graphics > Twoway graph (scatter, line, etc.) from the menus.
2. If the Plot 1 dialog is still visible, click on the Accept button and skip to step 4.
3. Go through the process on the previous page to create the graph.
4. Click on the By tab of the twoway - Twoway graphs dialog.
5. Check the Draw subgraphs for unique values of variables checkbox.
6. Enter foreign in the Variables field.
7. Check the Add a graph with totals checkbox.
8. Click on the Submit button.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 19

The command and the associated graph are

 
. twoway (scatter mpg weight), by(foreign, total)
 

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The graphs show that the relationship is nonlinear for both origins of cars.
Syntax note: To make the graphs for the combined subgroups, we ended up using a by() option,
not a by prefix. If we had used a by prefix, separate graphs would have been generated instead of the
combined graph created by the by() option.

Model fitting: Linear regression

After looking at the graphs, we would like to fit a regression model that predicts MPG from the weight
and type of the car. From the graphs, we see that the relationship is nonlinear, so we will try modeling
MPG as a quadratic in weight. Also from the graphs, we judge the relationship to be different for domestic
and foreign cars. We will include an indicator (dummy) variable for foreign and evaluate afterward
whether this adequately describes the difference. Thus we will fit the model

mpg = 𝛽0 + 𝛽1 weight + 𝛽2 weight2 + 𝛽3 foreign + 𝜖

foreign is already an indicator (0/1) variable, but we need to create the weight-squared variable. This
can be done with the menus, but here using the command line is simpler. Type
 
. generate wtsq = weight^2
 
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 20

Now that we have all the variables we need, we can run a linear regression. We will use the menus and
see that the command is also simple. To use the menus, select Statistics > Linear models and related >
Linear regression. In the resulting dialog, choose mpg as the Dependent variable and weight, wtsq, and
foreign as the Independent variables. Submit the command. Here is the equivalent simple regress
command and the resulting analysis-of-variance table.
 
. regress mpg weight wtsq foreign
Source SS df MS Number of obs = 74
F(3, 70) = 52.25
Model 1689.15372 3 563.05124 Prob > F = 0.0000
Residual 754.30574 70 10.7757963 R-squared = 0.6913
Adj R-squared = 0.6781
Total 2443.45946 73 33.4720474 Root MSE = 3.2827

mpg Coefficient Std. err. t P>|t| [95% conf. interval]

weight -.0165729 .0039692 -4.18 0.000 -.0244892 -.0086567

wtsq 1.59e-06 6.25e-07 2.55 0.013 3.45e-07 2.84e-06
foreign -2.2035 1.059246 -2.08 0.041 -4.3161 -.0909002
_cons 56.53884 6.197383 9.12 0.000 44.17855 68.89913

 

The results look encouraging, so we will plot the predicted values on top of the scatterplots for each
of the origins of cars. To do this, we need the predicted, or fitted, values. This can be done with the
menus, but doing it in the Command window is simple enough. We will create a new variable, mpghat,
to hold the predicted MPG for each car. Type
 
. predict mpghat
(option xb assumed; fitted values)
 

The output from this command is simply a notification. Go over to the Variables window and scroll
to the bottom to confirm that there is now an mpghat variable. If you were to try this command when
mpghat already existed, Stata would refuse to overwrite your data:
 
. predict mpghat
variable mpghat already defined
r(110);
 

The predict command, when used after a regression, is called a postestimation command. As spec-
ified, it creates a new variable called mpghat equal to

−0.0165729 weight + 1.59 × 10−6 wtsq − 2.2035 foreign + 56.53884

For careful model fitting, there are several features available to you after estimation—one is calcu-
lating predicted values. Be sure to read [U] 20 Estimation and postestimation commands.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 21

We can now graph the data and the predicted curve to evaluate separately the fit on the foreign and
domestic data to determine if our shift parameter is adequate. We can draw both graphs together. Using
the menus and a dialog, do the following:
1. Select Graphics > Twoway graph (scatter, line, etc.) from the menus.
2. If there are any plots listed, click on the Reset button, , to clear the dialog box.
3. Create the graph for mpg versus weight:
a. Click on the Create... button.
b. Be sure that Basic plots and Scatter are selected.
c. Select mpg as the Y variable and weight as the X variable.
d. Click on Accept.
4. Create the graph showing mpghat versus weight:
a. Click on the Create... button.
b. Select Basic plots and Line.
c. Select mpghat as the Y variable and weight as the X variable.
d. Check the Sort on x variable box. Doing so ensures that the lines connect from smallest to
largest weight values, instead of the order in which the data happen to be.
e. Click on Accept.
5. Show two plots, one each for domestic and foreign cars, on the same graph:
a. Click on the By tab.
b. Check the Draw subgraphs for unique values of variables checkbox.
c. Enter foreign in the Variables field.
6. Click on the Submit button.
Here are the resulting command and graph:
 
. twoway (scatter mpg weight) (line mpghat weight, sort), by(foreign)
 

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 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 22

Here we can see the reason for enclosing the separate scatter and line commands in parentheses:
they can thereby be overlaid by submitting them together. The fit of the plots looks good and is cause
for initial excitement. So much excitement, in fact, that we decide to print the graph and show it to
an engineering friend. We print the graph, being careful to print the graph (and not all our results), by
choosing File > Print... from the Graph window menu bar.
When we show our graph to our engineering friend, she is concerned. “No,” she says. “It should
take twice as much energy to move 2,000 pounds 1 mile compared with moving 1,000 pounds the same
distance: therefore, it should consume twice as much gasoline. Miles per gallon is not quadratic in
weight; gallons per mile is a linear function of weight. Don’t you remember any physics?”
We try out what she says. We need to generate an energy-per-distance variable and make a scatter-
plot. Here are the commands that we would need—note their similarity to commands issued earlier in
the session. There is one new command, the label variable command, which allows us to give the
gpm100m variable a variable label so that the graph is labeled nicely.
 
. generate gp100m = 100/mpg
. label variable gp100m "Gallons per 100 miles"
. twoway (scatter gp100m weight), by(foreign, total)
 

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 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 23

Sadly satisfied that the engineer is indeed correct, we rerun the regression:
 
. regress gp100m weight foreign
Source SS df MS Number of obs = 74
F(2, 71) = 113.97
Model 91.1761694 2 45.5880847 Prob > F = 0.0000
Residual 28.4000913 71 .400001287 R-squared = 0.7625
Adj R-squared = 0.7558
Total 119.576261 73 1.63803097 Root MSE = .63246

gp100m Coefficient Std. err. t P>|t| [95% conf. interval]

weight .0016254 .0001183 13.74 0.000 .0013896 .0018612

foreign .6220535 .1997381 3.11 0.003 .2237871 1.02032
_cons -.0734839 .4019932 -0.18 0.855 -.8750354 .7280677

 

We find that foreign cars had better gas mileage than domestic cars in 1978 because they were so light.
According to our model, a foreign car with the same weight as a domestic car would use an additional
5/8 gallon (or 5 pints) of gasoline per 100 miles driven. With this conclusion, we are satisfied with our
analysis.

Commands versus menus

In this chapter, you have seen that Stata can operate either with menu choices and dialogs or with the
Command window. As you become more familiar with Stata, you will find that the Command window
is typically much faster for oft-used commands, whereas the menus and dialogs are faster when building
up complex commands, such as those that create graphs.
One of Stata’s great strengths is the consistency of its command syntax. Most of Stata’s commands
share the following syntax, where square brackets mean that something is optional, and a varlist is a list
of variables.
[ prefix: ] command [ varlist ] [ if ] [ in ] [ weight ] [ , options ]

Some general rules:

• Most commands accept prefix commands that modify their behavior; see [U] 11.1.10 Prefix com-
mands for details. One of the common prefix commands is by.
• If an optional varlist is not specified, all the variables are used.
• if and in restrict the observations on which the command is run.
• options modify what the command does.
• Each command’s syntax is found in the system help and the reference manuals.
• Stata’s command syntax includes more than we have shown you here, but this introduction should
get you started. For more information, see [U] 11 Language syntax and help language.
We saw examples using all the pieces of this except for the in qualifier and the weight clause. The
syntax for all commands can be found in the system help along with examples—see [GSW] 4 Getting
help for more information. The consistent syntax makes it straightforward to learn new commands and
to read others’ commands when examining an analysis.
 [ GSW ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 24

Here is an example of reading the syntax diagram that uses the summarize command from earlier in
this chapter. The syntax diagram for summarize is typical:

summarize [ varlist ] [ if ] [ in ] [ weight ] [ , options ]

This means that

command by itself is valid: summarize
command followed by a varlist
(variable list) is valid: summarize mpg
summarize mpg weight
command with if (with or without
a varlist) is valid: summarize if mpg>20
summarize mpg weight if mpg>20
and so on.
You can learn about summarize in [R] summarize, or select Help > Stata command... and enter
summarize, or type help summarize in the Command window.

Keeping track of your work

It would have been useful if we had made a log of what we did so that we could conveniently look back
at interesting results or track any changes that were made. You will learn to do this in [GSW] 16 Saving
and printing results by using logs. Your logs will contain commands and their output—another reason
to learn command syntax is so that you can remember what you have done.
To make a log file that keeps track of everything appearing in the Results window, click on the Log
button, which looks like a lab notebook, . Choose a place to store your log file, and give it a name,
just as you would for any other document. The log file will save everything that appears in the Results
window from the time you start a log file to the time you close it.

Video example
What’s it like—Getting started in Stata

Conclusion
This chapter introduced you to Stata’s capabilities. You should now read and work through the rest
of this manual. Once you are done here, you can read the User’s Guide.
2 The Stata user interface

The windows
This chapter introduces the core of Stata’s interface: its main windows, its toolbar, its menus, and its
dialogs.
Past commands appear here Results are displayed here Variable list appears here Data properties appear here

Current working directory Commands are typed here Current log status Command log status
appears here appears here appears here

The five main windows are the History, Results, Command, Variables, and Properties windows. Ex-
cept for the Results window, each window has its name in its title bar. These five windows are typically
in use the whole time Stata is open. There are other, more specialized windows such as the Viewer, Data
Editor, Variables Manager, Do-file Editor, Graph, and Graph Editor windows—these are discussed later
in this manual.
To open any window or to reveal a window hidden by other windows, select the window from the
Window menu, or select the proper item from the toolbar. You can also use Ctrl+Tab to cycle through
all open windows inside the main Stata window or Alt+Tab to cycle through all open windows (Stata
and other) if you want to change windows from the keyboard. Many of Stata’s windows have func-
tionality that can be accessed by clicking on the right mouse button (right-clicking) within the window.
Right-clicking displays a contextual menu that, depending on the window, allows you to copy text, set
the preferences for the window, or print the contents of the window. When you copy text or print, we
recommend that you always right-click on the window rather than use the menu bar or toolbar so that
you can be sure of where and what you are copying or printing.
25
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 26

The toolbar
This is the toolbar:

The toolbar contains buttons that provide quick access to Stata’s more commonly used features. If
you forget what a button does, hold the mouse pointer over the button for a moment, and a tooltip will
appear with a description of that button.
Buttons that include both an icon and an arrow display a menu if you click on the arrow. Here is an
overview of the toolbar buttons and their functions:
Open opens a Stata dataset. Click on the button to open a dataset with the Open dialog.

Save saves the Stata dataset currently in memory to disk.

Print displays a list of windows. Select a window name to print its contents.

Log begins a new log or closes, suspends, or resumes the current log. See [GSW] 16 Sav-
ing and printing results by using logs for an explanation of log files.
Viewer opens the Viewer or brings a Viewer to the front of all other windows. Click on
the button to open a new Viewer. Click on the arrow to select a Viewer to bring to the
front. See [GSW] 3 Using the Viewer for more information.
Graph brings a Graph window to the front of all other windows. Click on the button
to bring the Graph window to the front. Click on the arrow to select a Graph window
to bring to the front. See The Graph button in [GSW] 14 Graphing data for more
information.
Do-file Editor opens the Do-file Editor or brings a Do-file Editor to the front of all
other windows. Click on the button to open a new Do-file Editor. Click on the arrow to
select a Do-file Editor to bring to the front. See [GSW] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—
automating Stata for more information.
Data Editor (Edit) opens the Data Editor or brings the Data Editor to the front of the
other Stata windows. See [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor for more information.
Data Editor (Browse) opens the Data Editor in browse mode. See Browse mode in
[GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor for more information.
Variables Manager opens the Variables Manager. See [GSW] 7 Using the Variables
Manager for more information.
Show more results tells Stata to continue when it has paused in the middle of long
output. Click on the arrow to choose whether to run the command to completion. See
[GSW] B.8 More for more information.
Break stops the current task in Stata. See [GSW] 10 Listing data and basic command
syntax for more information.
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 27

The Command window

Commands are submitted to Stata from the Command window. The Command window supports basic
text editing, copying and pasting, a command history, function-key mapping, filename completion, and
variable-name completion.
From the Command window, pressing

Page Up steps backward through the command history.

Page Down steps forward through the command history.
Tab autocompletes a partially typed variable name when possible or presents
a list of similar names if there could be more than one completion. Further
typing will narrow the list. As soon as the name is complete, the full name
will be inserted. If the name starts with a double quote, Tab attempts to
autocomplete a filename in the same manner.

See [U] 10 Keyboard use for more information about keyboard shortcuts for the Command window.
The command history allows you to recall a previously submitted command, edit it if you wish, and
then resubmit it. Commands submitted by Stata’s dialogs are also included in the command history, so
you can recall and submit a command without having to open the dialog again.

The Results window

The Results window contains all the commands and their textual results you have entered during the
Stata session.
You can scroll through the Results window to look at work you have done, it is much simpler to search
within the Results window by using the find bar. By default, the find bar is hidden. You can expose it by
selecting Edit > Find....
You can clear out the Results window at any time by right-clicking in the Results window and selecting
Clear results from the contextual menu. This action is not undoable.

The Variables window

The Variables window shows the list of variables in the dataset, along with the properties of the
variables. By default, it shows all the variables and their variable labels. You can change what properties
get displayed by right-clicking on the header of any column of the Variables window.
Click once on a variable in the Variables window to select it. Multiple variables can be selected
in the usual fashion, either by Ctrl-clicking on nonadjacent variables or by clicking on a variable and
Shift-clicking on a second variable to select all intervening variables.
Double-clicking on a variable in the Variables window puts the selected variable at the insertion point
in the Command window.
The leftmost column of the Variables window is called the one-click paste column. You can also
send variables to the Command window by hovering the mouse over the one-click paste column of the
Variables window and clicking on the arrow that appears. The one-click paste column can be shown or
hidden in the same fashion as the other columns in the Variables window.
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 28

The Variables window supports filtering and changing the display order of the variables. Text entered
in the Filter variables here field will filter the variables appearing in the Variables window. The filter is
applied to all visible columns and shows all variables that match the criteria in at least one column. By
default, the filter will ignore case and show any variables for which at least one column contains any of
the words in the filter. Clicking on the wrench on the left will allow you to change this behavior as well
as add or remove additional columns containing information about the variables.
You can change the display order of the variables in the Variables window by clicking on any column
header. The first click sorts in ascending order, the second click sorts in descending order, and the third
click puts the variables back in dataset order. Thus clicking on the Name column header will make the
Variables window display the variables in alphabetical order. Sorting in the Variables window is live,
so if you change a property of a variable when the Variables window is sorted by that property, it will
automatically move the variable to its proper location. Reordering the display order of the variables in
the Variables window does not affect the order of the variables in the dataset itself.
Right-clicking on a variable in the Variables window displays a menu from which you can select
• Keep only selected variables to keep just the selected variables in the dataset in memory. You
will be asked for confirmation. This affects only the dataset in memory, not the dataset as saved
on your disk. See [GSW] 12 Deleting variables and observations for more information.
• Drop selected variables to drop, or eliminate, the selected variables from the dataset in memory.
You will be asked for confirmation. Just as above, this affects only the dataset in memory, not
the dataset as saved on your disk. See [GSW] 12 Deleting variables and observations for more
information.
• Copy varlist to copy the selected variable names to the clipboard.
• Select all to select all variables in the dataset that satisfy the filter conditions. If no filter has been
specified, all variables will be selected.
• Send varlist to Command window to send all selected variables to the Command window.
• Font... to bring up a Font dialog, allowing you to change the font used to display the Variables
window contents.
Items from the contextual menu issue standard Stata commands, so working by right-clicking is just like
working directly in the Command window.
If you would like to hide the Variables window, click on its close button.
To reveal a hidden Variables window, select Window > Variables.

The Properties window

The Properties window displays variable and dataset properties. If a single variable is selected in the
Variables window, its properties are displayed. If there are multiple variables selected in the Variables
window, the Properties window will display properties that are common across all selected variables.
Clicking the lock icon in the Properties window title bar toggles the ability to alter properties of the
selected variables. By default, changes are not allowed. Once the properties are unlocked, you can make
any changes to variable or dataset properties you like. Each change you make will create a command
that appears in the Results and Command windows, as well as in any command log, so the changes are
reproducible. Using the Properties window is one of the simplest ways of managing notes, changing
variable and value labels, and changing display formats. See [D] notes, [D] label, and [D] format.
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 29

Clicking the arrow buttons next to the lock icon will select the previous or next variable shown in the
Variables window, and that selection will be reflected in the Properties window. If you would like to hide
the Properties window, click on its close box. If you would like to reveal a hidden Properties window,
select Window > Properties.
You should also investigate the Variables Manager, explained in [GSW] 7 Using the Variables Man-
ager, because it extends these capabilities and provides a good interface for managing variables.

The History window

The History window shows the history of commands that have been entered, with unsuccessful com-
mands and their error codes in red, by default.
The toolbar has two tools for manipulating the contents of the History window. Clicking on the Filter
button, , in the History window title bar toggles the visibility of these tools. Text entered in the Filter
commands here field will filter the commands appearing in the History window. By default, the filter
ignores case and finds any commands containing any of the words in the filter. Clicking on the wrench
on the left allows you to change this behavior. You can hide the commands that produced an error by
clicking on the Filter errors button, .
To enter a command from the History window, you can
• Click once on a past command to copy it to the Command window, replacing the contents of the
Command window.
• Double-click on a past command to resubmit it. Executing the command adds the command to the
bottom of the History window.
Right-clicking on the History window displays a menu from which you can select various actions:
• Cut removes the selected commands from the History window and places them on the Clipboard.
• Copy copies the selected commands to the Clipboard.
• Delete removes the selected commands from the History window.
• Select all selects all the commands in the History window, including those before and after the
commands currently displayed.
• Clear all clears out all the commands from the History window, including those before and after
the commands currently displayed.
• Do selected submits all the selected commands and adds them to the bottom of the command
history. Stata will attempt to run all the selected commands, even those containing errors, and will
not stop even if a command causes an error.
• Send selected to Do-file Editor places all the selected commands into a new Do-file Editor win-
dow.
• Save all... brings up a Save review contents dialog, which allows you to save all the commands
in the History window, including those before and after the commands currently displayed, in a
do-file. (See [GSW] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata for more information on
do-files.)
• Save selected... brings up a Save review contents dialog, which allows you to save the selected
commands in the History window in a do-file.
• Font... brings up a Font dialog, allowing you to change the font used to display the History window
contents.
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 30

Menus and dialogs

There are two ways by which you can tell Stata what you would like it to do: you can use menus
and dialogs, or you can use the Command window. When you worked through the sample session in
[GSW] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session, you saw that both ways have strengths. We will discuss
the menus and dialogs here.
Stata’s Data, Graphics, and Statistics menus provide point-and-click access to almost every com-
mand in Stata. As you will learn, Stata is fully programmable, and Stata users can even create their own
dialogs and menus. The User menu provides a place for programmers to add their own menu items.
Initially, it contains only some empty submenus. As an example, suppose you wish to perform a Poisson
regression. You could type Stata’s poisson command, or you could select Statistics > Count outcomes
> Poisson regression, which would display this dialog:

This dialog provides access to all the functionality of Stata’s poisson command. Because the de-
pendent and independent variables must be numeric, you will find that the combo box will display only
numeric variables for choosing. The poisson command has many options that can be accessed by click-
ing on the multiple tabs across the top of the dialog. The first time you use the dialog for a command, it
is a good idea to look at the contents of each tab so that you will know all the dialog’s capabilities.
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 31

The dialogs for many commands have the by/if/in and Weights tabs. These provide access to Stata’s
commands and qualifiers for controlling the estimation sample and dealing with weighted data. See
[U] 11 Language syntax for more information on these features of Stata’s language.
The dialogs for most estimation commands have the Maximization tab for setting the maximization
options (see [R] Maximize). For example, you can specify the maximum number of iterations for the
optimizer.
Most dialogs in Stata provide the same six buttons you see at the bottom of the poisson dialog above.

OK issues a Stata command based on how you have filled out the fields in the
dialog and then closes the dialog.
Cancel closes the dialog without doing anything—just as clicking on the dialog’s
close button does.
Submit issues a command just like OK but leaves the dialog on the screen so that
you can make changes and issue another command. This feature is handy when,
for example, you are learning a new command or putting together a complicated
graph.
Help provides access to Stata’s help system. Clicking on this button will typically
take you to the help file for the Stata command associated with the dialog. Click-
ing on it here would take you to the poisson help file. The help file will have
tabs above groups of options to show which dialog tab contains which options.
Reset resets the dialog to its default state. Each time you open a dialog, it will
remember how you last filled it out. If you wish to reset its fields to their default
values at any time, simply click on this button.
Copy command to Clipboard behaves much like the Submit button, but rather
than issuing a command, it copies the command to the Clipboard. The command
can then be pasted elsewhere (such as in the Do-file Editor).
The command issued by a dialog is submitted just as if you had typed it by hand. You can see the
command in the Results window and in the History window after it executes. Looking carefully at the
full command will help you learn Stata’s command syntax.
In addition to being able to access the dialogs for Stata commands through Stata’s menus, you can
also invoke them by using two other methods. You may know the name of a Stata command for which
you want to see a dialog, but you might not remember how to navigate to that command in the menu
system. Simply type db commandname to launch the dialog for commandname:
 
. db poisson
 

You will also find access to the dialog for a command in that command’s help file; see [GSW] 4 Getting
help for more details.
As you read this manual, we will present examples of Stata commands. You may type those examples
as presented, but you should also experiment with submitting those commands by using their dialogs.
Use the db command described above to quickly launch the dialog for any command that you see in this
manual.
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 32

The working directory

If you look at the screenshot on page 4, you will notice the status bar at the base of the main Stata
window that contains the name of the current working directory you set when you installed Stata. We
will use the directory C:\Users\stata\Documents\Stata in our examples; your exact directory will
differ. The current working directory is the folder where graphs and datasets will be saved when typing
commands such as save filename. It does not affect the behavior of menu-driven file actions such as File
> Save or File > Open.... Once you have started Stata, you can change the current working directory
with the cd command. See [D] cd for full details. Stata always displays the name of the current working
directory so that it is easy to tell where your graphs and datasets will be saved.

Fine control of Stata’s windows

When Stata is first launched, the History, Results, Command, Variables, and Properties windows
appear within the main Stata window. The History, Variables, Properties, and Command windows are
initially linked to one another and attached to the edges of the Stata window. They can be resized by
dragging on their edges. They even have two more features: you can drag them by their title bars to
reposition them within the main window, and you can hide them as tabs when not in use. To hide them
as tabs, click on the pushpin icons in their title bars.
The Results window always occupies whatever space remains inside the main Stata window.
All other windows that open up can be moved freely and independently of the Stata window.
This default behavior is simple and familiar and needs little explanation. Try playing with the windows
inside the main Stata window now. If you find that the window behavior is good, you can stop reading
this section. If you find that you would like some extra customization or that you would simply like some
technical explanation of added window behaviors, keep reading.

Window types
The Stata for Windows interface has two types of windows: docking and nondocking. The History,
Command, Variables, and Properties windows are docking windows. All other windows are nondocking.
Docking windows have special characteristics that allow them to be used with other docking win-
dows: they can be linked (sharing a window with a splitter dividing the windows) or tabbed (sharing a
window with a tab for each docking window). They can be set to automatically hide when not needed.
Nondocking windows have none of these special characteristics.
Here is a brief comparison of the two types of windows:
Docking windows
• can be linked to other docking windows so that they share a window with a splitter dividing them;
• can share one window with other docking windows with a tab for each; and
• can be made to hide automatically when not in use.
Nondocking windows
• are separate from the main Stata window (except for the Results window);
• cannot be linked to other windows;
• cannot be tabbed to another window; and
• cannot be made to hide automatically when not in use.
 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 33

When Stata is first launched, the History, Results, Command, Variables, and Properties windows appear
within the main Stata window. The History, Command, Variables, and Properties windows are docking
windows and are initially both docked and linked to one another. The Results window is a nondocking
window.

Docking windows
Docking windows may be moved within the main Stata window by dragging on their title bars. When
you drag a docking window over the main Stata window or another docking window, docking guides
appear (see figure 1). Dragging the title bar over a docking guide gives you a preview of how and where
the window will appear if you release the mouse button.
Dropping the box on one of the outer docking guides links the docking window to the window under
the guide. For example, figure 1 shows how you would drag the History window over the Variables
window, at which point the docking guides appear. When you move the mouse over the bottom docking
guide and release the mouse button, the History window becomes linked to the Variables window and is
displayed in the lower part of the window.
When docking windows are linked, a divider (splitter) is inserted between them. The splitter allows
the linked windows to be resized; increasing the size of one window decreases the size of the other.

Figure 1: Linking two windows

Dropping the box on the center docking guide (see figure 2) combines the docking window with
the window under the guide. One docking window is created with a tab for each docked window at the
bottom of the new window. Clicking on a tab displays its window. To undock a tabbed window, click and
drag the window’s tab out of the docking window to a docking guide. The docking window containing
the tabbed windows can also be linked to other docking windows.

Figure 2: Docking two windows

 [ GSW ] 2 The Stata user interface 34

Auto Hide and pinning

Docking windows support the Auto Hide feature, which automatically hides the docking windows
when they are not in use. Pushpins appear in the title bar of all docked windows in the main Stata
window.
To enable Auto Hide for a docking window, click on the pushpin in the title bar (see figure 3) so that
the pushpin is horizontal. Click on the pushpin again to disable Auto Hide; the pushpin will be vertical.
After you enable Auto Hide for a docking window, the window is hidden when not in use and is
displayed as a tab along an edge of the main Stata window. To show the window, move the mouse
pointer over the tab. To hide the window again, move the mouse pointer outside the window. If the
window has the focus (its title bar is highlighted), it will be hidden if you click on another window.

Figure 3: Enabling Auto Hide

If you enable Auto Hide for the History window in its default docked location, it will obscure any text
at the beginning of the Command window when it is displayed. To avoid this problem, dock this window
at the right edge of the main Stata window before enabling Auto Hide.

Nondocking windows
Nondocking windows include the Graph window, Data Editor, Do-file Editor, Viewers, and dialogs.
These windows are always independent of the main Stata window. The Results window, because of its
status as the primary window of Stata, must remain inside the main Stata window.
3 Using the Viewer

The Viewer’s purpose

The Viewer is a versatile tool in Stata. It will be the first place you can turn for help within Stata, but
it is far more than just a help system. You can also use the Viewer to add, delete, and manage third-party
extensions to Stata that are known as community-contributed features; to view and print Stata logs from
both your current and your previous Stata sessions; to view and print any other Stata-formatted (SMCL)
or plain-text file; and even to launch your web browser to follow hyperlinks.
This chapter focuses on the general use of the Viewer, its buttons, and a brief summary of the com-
mands that the Viewer understands. There is more information about using the Viewer to find help in
[GSW] 4 Getting help and for installing community-contributed features in [GSW] 19 Updating and
extending Stata—Internet functionality.
To open a new Viewer window (or open a new tab in an existing Viewer), you can either click on the
Viewer button, , or select Window > Viewer > New Viewer.

Viewer buttons
The toolbar of the Viewer has multiple buttons, a command box, and a search box.

Back goes back one step in your viewing trail.

Forward goes forward one step in your viewing trail, assum-

ing you backtracked.
Reload page refreshes the Viewer, in case you are viewing
something that has changed since you opened the Viewer.

Print prints the contents of the Viewer.

Find text in page opens the find bar at the bottom of the
Viewer (see below).

Search chooses the scope of help searches in the Viewer.

35
 [ GSW ] 3 Using the Viewer 36

The Find bar is used to find text within the current Viewer. To reveal the Find bar at the bottom of the
window, click on the Find text in page button:

The Find bar has its own buttons, fields, and checkboxes.

Close closes the Find bar.

Find is the field for entering the search text you would like to
find. You can change the search options by using the check-
boxes.
Previous jumps to the previous instance of the search text; it
automatically wraps past the start of the Viewer document if
there are no previous instances of the search text.
Next jumps to the next instance of the search text; it automat-
ically wraps past the end of the Viewer document if there are
no further instances of the search text.
Highlight all highlights other instances of the search text (in
yellow, by default) when this box is checked. If unchecked,
only the current instance of the search text is highlighted (in
black, by default). By default, this box is checked.
Match case, when checked, considers uppercase and lower-
case letters to be different. When this box is checked, search-
ing for This would not find this. If unchecked, uppercase
and lowercase letters are considered the same, so searching
for This would find this. By default, this box is unchecked.
 [ GSW ] 3 Using the Viewer 37

Viewer’s function
The Viewer is similar to a web browser. It has links (shown in blue text by default) that you can click
on to see related help topics and to install and manage third-party software. When you move the mouse
pointer over a link, the status bar at the bottom of the Viewer shows the action associated with that link.
If the action of a link is help logistic, clicking on that link will show the help file for the logistic
command in the Viewer. Middle-clicking on a link in a Viewer window (Ctrl+clicking if you do not
have a three-button mouse) will open the link in a new tab in the Viewer window. Shift+clicking will
open the link in a new Viewer window.
You can open a new Viewer by selecting Window > Viewer > New Viewer or by clicking on the
Viewer button on the toolbar of the main window. Entering a help command from the Command window
will also open a new Viewer.
To bring a Viewer to the front of all other Viewers, select Window > Viewer and choose a Viewer
from the list there. Selecting Close all Viewers closes all open Viewer window and tabs.

Viewing local text files, including SMCL files

In addition to viewing built-in Stata help files, you can use the Viewer to view Stata Markup and Con-
trol Language (SMCL) files such as those typically produced when logging your work (see [GSW] 16 Sav-
ing and printing results by using logs) as well as plain-text files. To open a file and view its contents,
simply select File > Open..., and you will be presented with a dialog:

You may either type in the name of the file that you wish to view and click on OK, or you may click
on the Browse... button to open a standard file dialog that allows you to navigate to the file.
If you currently have a log file open, you may view the log file in the Viewer. This method has one
advantage over scrolling back in the Results window: what you view stays fixed even as output is added
to the Results window. If you wish to view a current log file, select File > Log > View..., and the usual
dialog will appear but with the path and filename of the current log already in the field. Simply click on
OK, and the log will appear in the Viewer. See [GSW] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs for
more details.

Viewing remote files over the Internet

If you want to look at a remote file over the Internet, the process is similar to viewing a local file,
only instead of using the Browse... button, you type the URL of the file that you want to see, such as
https://www.stata.com/man/readme.smcl. You should use the Viewer only to view text or SMCL files. If
you enter the URL of, say, an arbitrary webpage, you will see the HTML source of the page instead of the
usual browser rendering.
 [ GSW ] 3 Using the Viewer 38

Navigating within the Viewer

In addition to using the scrollbar to navigate the Viewer window, you also can use the up and down
arrow keys and Page Up and Page Down keys to do the same. Pressing the up or down arrow key scrolls
the window a line at a time. Pressing the Page Up or Page Down key scrolls the window a screen at a
time.

Printing
To print the contents of the Viewer, right-click on the window and select Print.... You may also select
File > Print > Viewer name or click on the Print toolbar button, , to print.

Tabs in the Viewer

A Viewer window can have multiple tabs. You may view different files or different views of the same
file in different tabs. Clicking on the Open new tab button, , will open a new tab in the current Viewer
window. You can change the order of the tabs within a Viewer by dragging the tabs along the tab bar
within the window. If you drag a tab and drop it within the body of the same Viewer window, a menu
will appear. If you select New Horizontal Tab Group, the Viewer window will be split horizontally.
This is useful for having two views of the same file at different places in the file. Similarly, if you select
New Vertical Tab Group, the Viewer window will be split vertically. This is useful for comparing two
similar files side by side.
Once you have created a horizontal or vertical tab group, if you drop a tab inside a group, you will
get the choice of creating a similar new group or moving the tab to the selected group.

Right-clicking on the Viewer window

Right-clicking on the Viewer window displays a contextual menu that offers these options:
• Select all to select all text in the Viewer.
• Preferences... to edit the preferences for the Viewer window.
• Font... to change the font for the window.
• Print... to print the contents of the Viewer window.
In other contexts, there could be more items displayed in the contextual menu.

Searching for help in the Viewer

The search box in the Viewer can be used to search documentation. Click on the magnifying glass;
choose Search all, Search documentation and FAQs, or Search net resources; and then type a word or
phrase in the search box and press Enter. For more extensive information about using the Viewer for
help, see [GSW] 4 Getting help.
 [ GSW ] 3 Using the Viewer 39

Commands in the Viewer

Everything that can be done in the Viewer by clicking on links and buttons can also be done by typing
commands in the command box at the top of the window or on the Stata command line. Some tasks that
can be performed in the Viewer are
• obtaining help (see [GSW] 4 Getting help):
Type contents to view the contents of Stata’s help system.
Type commandname to view the help file for a Stata command.
Type keyword to search documentation, FAQs, and net resources for a topic.
• searching (see [GSW] 4 Getting help):
Type search keyword to search documentation, FAQs, and net resources for a topic.
Type search keyword, local to search only documentation and FAQs for a topic.
Type search keyword, net to search only net resources for a topic.
• finding and installing community-contributed commands (see [GSW] 4 Getting help and
[GSW] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality):
Type net from https://www.stata.com/ to find and install Stata Journal and
community-contributed commands from the Internet.
Type ado to review community-contributed packages you have installed.
Type ado uninstall to uninstall community-contributed packages you have installed on
your computer.
• viewing files in the Viewer:
Type view filename.smcl to view SMCL files.
Type view filename.txt to view text files.
Type view filename.log to view text log files.
• viewing files in the Results window:
Type type filename.smcl in the Command window to view SMCL files in the Results win-
dow.
Type type filename.txt in the Command window to view text files in the Results window.
Type type filename.log in the Command window to view text log files in the Results win-
dow.
• launching your browser to view an HTML file:
Type browse URL to launch your browser.

Using the Viewer from the Command window

Typing help commandname in the Command window will bring up a new Viewer showing the re-
quested help.
4 Getting help

System help
Stata’s help system provides a wealth of information to help you learn and use Stata. To find out
which Stata command will perform the statistical or data management task you would like to do, you
should generally follow these steps:
1. Select Help > Search..., choose Search all, and enter the topic or keywords. This search will open
a new Viewer window containing information about Stata commands, references to articles in the
Stata Journal, links to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Stata’s website, links to videos on
Stata’s YouTube channel, links to selected external websites, and links to community-contributed
features.
2. Read through the results. If you find a useful command, click on the link to the appropriate com-
mand name to open its help file.
3. Read the help file for the command you chose.
4. If you want more in-depth help, click on the link from the name of the command to the PDF docu-
mentation, read it, then come back to Stata.
5. If the first help file you went to is not what you wanted, either click on the Also see menu and
choose a link to related help files or click on the Back button to go back to the previous document
and go from there to other help files.
6. With the help file open, click on the Command window and enter the command, or click on the
Dialog button and choose a link to open a dialog for the command.
7. If, at any time, you want to begin again with a new search, enter the new search terms in the search
box of the Viewer window.
8. If you select Search documentation and FAQs, Stata searches its keyword database for official
Stata commands, Stata Journal articles and software, FAQs, and videos. If you select Search net
resources, Stata searches for community-contributed commands, whether they are from the Stata
Journal or elsewhere; see [GSW] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality for
more information.
Let’s illustrate the help system with an example. You will get the most benefit from the example if
you work along at your computer.
Suppose that we have been given a dataset about antique cars and that we need to know what it
contains. Though we still have a vague notion of having seen something like this while working through
the example session in [GSW] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session, we do not remember the proper
command.
Start by typing sysuse auto, clear in the Command window to bring the dataset into memory. (See
[GSW] 5 Opening and saving Stata datasets for information on the clear option.)
Follow the above approach:
1. Select Help > Search....
2. Check that the Search all radio button is selected.
3. Type dataset contents into the search box and click on OK or press Enter. Before we press
Enter, the window should look like

40
 [ GSW ] 4 Getting help 41

4. Stata will now search for “dataset contents” among the Stata commands, the reference manuals,
the Stata Journal, the FAQs on Stata’s website, and community-contributed features. Here is the
result:
 [ GSW ] 4 Getting help 42

5. Upon seeing the results of the search, we see two commands that look promising: codebook and
describe. Because we are interested in the contents of the dataset, we decide to check out the
codebook command. The [D] means that we could look up the codebook command in the Data
Management Reference Manual. The codebook link in (help codebook) means that there is a
system help file for the codebook command. This is what we are interested in right now.
6. Click on the codebook link. Links can take you to a variety of resources, such as help for Stata
commands, dialogs, and even webpages. Here the link goes to the help file for the codebook
command.

7. What is displayed is typical for help for a Stata command. Help files for Stata commands contain,
from top to bottom, these features:
a. The quick access toolbar with three buttons:
i. The Dialog button shows links to any dialogs associated with the command.
ii. The Also see button shows links to related PDF documentation and help files.
iii. The Jump to button shows links to other sections within the current help file.
b. The second line of a help file shows a View complete PDF manual entry link. Clicking on
the link will open the complete documentation for the command—in this case, codebook—
in your PDF viewer.
c. The command’s syntax, that is, rules for constructing a command that Stata will correctly
interpret. The square brackets here indicate that all the arguments to codebook are optional
but that if we wanted to specify them, we could use a varlist, an if qualifier, or an in
qualifier, along with some options. (Options vary greatly from command to command.)
The options are listed directly under the command and are explained in some detail later in
the help file. You will learn more about command syntax in [GSW] 10 Listing data and
basic command syntax.
 [ GSW ] 4 Getting help 43

d. A description of the command. Because “codebook” is the name for big binders containing
a hard copy describing each of the elements of a dataset, the description for the codebook
command is justifiably terse.
e. The options that can be used with this command. These are explained in much greater detail
than in the listing of the possible options after the syntax. Here, for example, we can see
that the mv option can look to see if there is a pattern in the missing values—something
important for data cleaning and imputation.
f. Examples of command usage. The codebook examples are real examples that step through
using the command on a dataset either shipped with Stata or loadable within Stata from the
Internet.
g. The information the command stores in the returned results. These results are used primarily
by programmers.
For now, either click on Jump to and choose Examples from the drop-down menu or scroll down to
the examples. It is worth going through the examples as given in the help file. Here is a screenshot
of the top of the examples:
 [ GSW ] 4 Getting help 44

Searching help
Search is designed to help you find information about statistics, graphics, data management, and
programming features in Stata, either as part of the official release or as community-contributed features.
When entering topics for the search, use appropriate terms from statistics, etc. For example, you could
enter Mann-Whitney. Multiple topic words are allowed, for example, regression residuals.
When you are using Search, use proper English and proper statistical terminology. If you already
know the name of the Stata command and want to go directly to its help file, select Help > Stata com-
mand... and type the command name. You can also type the command name in the Search field at the
top of the Viewer and press Enter.
Help distinguishes between topics and Stata commands because some names of Stata commands are
also general topic names. For example, logistic is a Stata command. If you choose Stata command...
and type logistic, you will go right to the help file for the command. But if you choose Search...
and type logistic, you will get search results listing the many Stata commands that relate to logistic
regression.
Remember that you can search for help from within a Viewer window by typing a command in the
command box of the Viewer or by clicking the magnifying glass button to the left of the search box,
selecting the scope of your search, typing the search criteria in the search box, and pressing Enter.

Help and search commands

As you might expect, the help system is accessible from the Command window. This feature is
especially convenient when you need help on a particular Stata command. Here is a short listing of the
various commands you can use:
• Typing help commandname is equivalent to selecting Help > Stata command... and typing com-
mandname. The help file for the command appears in a new Viewer window.
• Typing search topic in the Command window produces the same output as selecting Help >
Search..., choosing Search all, and typing topic. The output appears in a new Viewer window.
• Typing search topic, local in the Command window produces the same output as selecting Help
> Search..., choosing Search documentation and FAQs, and typing topic. The output appears in
the Results window instead of a Viewer.
• Typing search topic, net in the Command window produces the same output as selecting Help
> Search..., choosing Search net resources, and typing topic. The output appears in the Results
window instead of a Viewer.
See [U] 4 Stata’s help and search facilities and [U] 4.8 search: All the details in the User’s Guide for
more information about these command-language versions of the help system. The search command,
in particular, has a few capabilities (such as author searches) that we have not demonstrated here.

The Stata reference manuals and User’s Guide

All the Stata reference manuals come as PDF files and are included with the software. The manu-
als themselves have many cross-references in the form of clickable links, so you can easily read the
documentation in a nonlinear way.
Many of the links in the help files point to the PDF manuals that came with Stata. It is worth clicking
on these links to read the extensive information found in the manuals. The Stata help system, though
extensive, contains only a fraction of the information found in the manuals.
 [ GSW ] 4 Getting help 45

Most Stata reference manuals are each arranged alphabetically. Each Getting Started with Stata has
its own index. A combined index for all other manuals can be found in the Stata Index. This combined
index is a good place to start when you are looking for information about a command.
Entries have names like collapse, egen, and summarize, which are generally themselves Stata com-
mands.
Notations such as [R] ci, [R] regress, and [R] ttest in the Search results and help files are references to
the Base Reference Manual. You may also see things like [P] PyStata integration, which is a reference
to the Programming Reference Manual, and [U] 12 Data, which is a reference to the User’s Guide. For a
complete list of manuals and their shorthand notations, see Cross-referencing the documentation, which
immediately follows the table of contents in this manual.
For advice on how to use the reference manuals, see [GSW] 18 Learning more about Stata, or see
[U] 1.2 The Stata Documentation.

Stata videos
The Stata YouTube channel is an excellent resource for learning about Stata. The brief videos demon-
strate many topics using Stata’s graphical user interface. They cover basic topics, such as data man-
agement, graphics, summary statistics, and hypothesis testing, and advanced topics, such as multilevel
models and structural equation models.
There are also several playlists that provide a series of videos about a topic in sequence. For example,
the “Power and sample size calculations” playlist includes videos about how to calculate power, sample
size, and effect size for two independent proportions and for paired samples. The “Survival analysis”
playlist takes you through the process of setting your data up for survival analysis, conducting basic
descriptive analysis of survival data, graphing survival data, and calculating survivor functions and life
tables. The “Time series” playlist takes you through the process of setting your data up for time-series
analysis, creating time-series graphs, using time-series operators in estimation, and fitting ARMA and
ARIMA models. There is even a “Back-to-school video” playlist for students who are using Stata for the
first time or want a refresher after summer break.
See https://www.stata.com/links/video-tutorials/ for an up-to-date list of videos organized by topic.
The playlists can be accessed directly at https://www.youtube.com/user/statacorp/.

The Stata Journal

When searching in Stata, you will often see links to the Stata Journal.
The Stata Journal is a printed and electronic journal, published quarterly, containing articles about
statistics, data analysis, teaching methods, and effective use of Stata’s language. The Journal publishes
peer-reviewed papers together with shorter notes and comments, regular columns, tips, book reviews,
and other material of interest to researchers applying statistics in a variety of disciplines. The Journal
is a publication for all Stata users, both novice and experienced, with different levels of expertise in
statistics, research design, data management, graphics, reporting of results, and Stata, in particular. See
https://www.stata-journal.com for more information.
Associated with each issue of the Stata Journal are the programs and datasets described therein. These
programs and datasets are made available for download and installation over the Internet, not only to
subscribers but also to all Stata users. See [R] net and [R] sj for more information.
 [ GSW ] 4 Getting help 46

The Stata Journal website allows all articles older than three years to be downloaded for free.
See Downloading community-contributed commands in [GSW] 19 Updating and extending Stata—
Internet functionality for more details on how to install community-contributed software. Also see
[R] ssc for information on a convenient interface to resources available from the Statistical Software
Components (SSC) Archive.
We recommend that all users subscribe to the Stata Journal. See [U] 3.4 The Stata Journal for more
information.
Links to other sites where you can freely download programs and datasets for Stata can be found on
the Stata website; see https://www.stata.com/links/.
5 Opening and saving Stata datasets

How to load your dataset from disk and save it to disk

Opening and saving datasets in Stata works similarly to those tasks in other computer applications.
There are a few differences, however. First, it is possible to save and open files from within Stata’s
Command window. Second, Stata allows just one dataset to be active at any one time. That is, while it
is possible to have multiple datasets in memory at once (see [D] frames intro), only one dataset may be
active. Keeping this in mind will make Stata’s care in opening new datasets clear. This chapter outlines
all the possible ways to open and save datasets.
A Stata dataset can be opened in a variety of ways, most of which are probably familiar to you from
other applications:
• Double-click on a Stata data file, which is a file whose extension is .dta. Note: The file extension
may not be visible, depending on what options you have set in your operating system.
• Select File > Open... or click on the Open button and navigate to the file.
• Select File > Open data subset..., navigate to the file, specify the observation range, and select
variables from the dataset.
• Select File > Recent files > filename.
• Type use filename in the Command window. Stata will look for filename in the current working
directory. If the file is located elsewhere, you will need to give its path. Be aware that if there is a
space anywhere in the path or filename, you will need to put the filename inside quotation marks.
See [U] 11.6 Filenaming conventions.
• Type sysuse filename in the Command window. Stata will look for filename in a series of di-
rectories called the adopath. Typically, this is for finding example datasets installed when you
installed Stata, but it can also be used for easy access to your own datasets. For more information
on the adopath, see [P] sysdir.
• Type webuse filename in the Command window. The webuse command is used to access datasets
used in the Stata manuals; for example, webuse lbw loads the lbw dataset used in the documenta-
tion of the logistic command. For more information, see [D] webuse.
Opening a dataset in the current frame (see [D] frames intro) will replace the dataset, if any, that is
currently in memory for that frame. Datasets in other frames are unaffected. If there have been changes
to the data in the dataset in the current frame, Stata will refuse to discard the dataset unless you force it
to do so. If you open the file with any method other than the Command window, you will be prompted.
If you use the Command window and the current data have changed, you will get the following error
message:
 
. sysuse auto
no; dataset in memory has changed since last saved
r(4);
 

These behaviors protect you from mistakenly losing data.

47
 [ GSW ] 5 Opening and saving Stata datasets 48

To save an unnamed dataset (or an old dataset under a new name):

1. select File > Save as...; or
2. type save filename in the Command window.
To save a dataset for use with Stata 13,
1. select File > Save as..., and select Stata 13 Data (*.dta) from the Save as type list; or
2. type saveold filename in the Command window.
To save a dataset that has been changed (overwriting the original data file),
1. select File > Save;
2. click on the Save button; or
3. type save, replace in the Command window.
Once you overwrite a dataset, there is no way to recover your original dataset. With important datasets,
you may want to either keep a backup copy of your original filename.dta or save your changes to a
dataset under a new name. This is no different from working with a word-processing document, except
that recovering from an inadvertent save of a dataset is nearly impossible.
Important note: Changes you have made to a dataset are not permanent until you save them. You
work with a copy of the dataset in memory, not with the data file itself. This should not be surprising,
because it is the way that you work with almost all applications on your computer.
If you do not want to save your dataset, you can clear the dataset in memory and open a new dataset
by typing use filename, clear.

How to load a set of frames from disk and save them to disk
A set of frames, or frameset, can be saved in a single .dtas file using frames save. A frameset can
be opened with frames describe.
6 Using the Data Editor

The Data Editor

The Data Editor gives a spreadsheet-like view of data that are currently in memory. You can use it to
enter new data, edit existing data, search through the dataset, and edit attributes of the data in the dataset,
such as variable names, labels, and display formats, as well as value labels.
In addition to the view of the data, there are two windows for manipulating variables and their prop-
erties: the Variables window and the Properties window. These are similar to the same-named windows
in the main Stata window.
Any action you take in the Data Editor results in a command being issued to Stata as though you had
typed it into the Command window. This means that you can keep good records and learn commands by
using the Data Editor.
The Data Editor can be kept open while you work in Stata, giving you a live view of your dataset as
you work. To protect your data from inadvertent changes, the Data Editor has two modes: edit mode for
active editing and browse mode for viewing. In browse mode, editing within the Data Editor window is
disabled. We highly recommend that you use the Data Editor in browse mode and switch to edit mode
only when you want to make changes.
You can print your data from the Data Editor by selecting Print from the File menu.
We will be entering and editing data in this chapter, as well as manipulating the variables by using the
Variables and Properties windows, so start the Data Editor in edit mode by clicking on the Data Editor
(Edit) button, .

Buttons on the Data Editor

The toolbar for the Data Editor has some standard buttons and some buttons we have not yet seen:

Edit mode: Changes the Data Editor to edit mode.

Browse mode: Changes the Data Editor to browse mode for safely looking at data.

Open: Opens a Stata dataset. Stata will warn you if your current dataset has unsaved changes.

Save: Saves the dataset visible in the Data Editor.

Print: Prints the dataset visible in the Data Editor.

Copy: Copies the current selection to the Clipboard.

Paste: Pastes the contents of the Clipboard. You may paste only if one cell is selected—this
cell will become the upper-left corner of the pasted contents. Warning: This action will paste
over existing data.

49
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 50

Find: Opens the Find bar for searching in the Data Editor.

Filter observations: Filters the observations visible in the Data Editor. This button is useful
for looking at a subset of the current dataset.
You can move about in the Data Editor by using the typical methods:
• To move to the right, use the Tab key or the right arrow key.
• To move to the left, use Shift+Tab or the left arrow key.
• To move down, use Enter or the down arrow key.
• To move up, use Shift+Enter or the up arrow key.
You can also click within a cell to select it.
Right-clicking within the Data Editor brings up a contextual menu that allows you to manipulate the
data and what you are viewing. Right-clicking on the Data Editor window displays a menu from which
you can do many common tasks:
• Copy to copy data to the Clipboard.
• Paste to paste data from the Clipboard.
• Paste special... to paste data from the Clipboard with finer control of delimiters, giving a preview
of what will be pasted.
• Select all to select all the data displayed in the Data Editor. This could be different from the data
in the dataset if the data are filtered or some variables are hidden.
• Data to open a submenu containing
• Insert variable... to bring up a dialog for creating a new variable at the current cursor
position.
• Add variable... to bring up a dialog for creating a new variable at the beginning or end of
a dataset.
• Replace contents of variable... to bring up a dialog for replacing the values of the selected
variable.
• Insert observations... to bring up a dialog for inserting new empty observations at the
current cursor position.
• Add observations... to bring up a dialog for adding new empty observations to the end of
the dataset.
• Sort data... to sort the dataset by the selected variable.
• Value labels to access a submenu for managing value labels.
• Manage value labels... to bring up value labels manager.
• Keep only selected data to keep only the selected data in the dataset. All remaining data
will be dropped (removed) from the dataset. As always, this affects only the data in memory.
It will not affect any data on disk.
• Drop selected data to drop the selected data. This is only possible if the selection consists
of either entire variables (columns) or observations (rows).
• Convert variables from string to numeric... for converting string variables to numeric
variables, which is useful when the string variables contain characters for formatting num-
bers instead of just numbers.
• Convert variables from numeric to string... for converting numeric variables to strings.
• Encode string variable to labeled numeric... for encoding a string-valued categorical vari-
able to a numeric variable while still displaying the categories in tables and graphs.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 51

• Decode labeled numeric variable to string... for turning an encoded variable back into a
string variable.
• Pin selected row or column to pin rows or columns. If one or more columns and variables are
selected, you will see Pin selected variables; if one or more rows and observations are selected,
you will see Pin selected observations.
• Reset selected column widths to reset the selected columns to their default widths.
• Hide selected variables to hide the selected variables.
• Show only selected variables to hide all but the selected variables.
• Show entire dataset to turn off all filters and unhide all variables.
• Preferences... to set the preferences for the Data Editor.
• Font... to change the font of the Data Editor.

Data entry
Entering data into the Data Editor is similar to entering data into a spreadsheet. One major difference is
that the Data Editor has the concept of observations, which makes the data entry smart. We will illustrate
this with an example. It will be useful for you to follow the example at your computer. To work along,
you will need to start with an empty dataset, so save your dataset if necessary, and then type clear in
the Command window.
Note: As a check to see if your data have changed, type describe, short (or d,s for short). Stata
will tell you if your data have changed.
Suppose that we have the following data, and we want to enter them into Stata:
Make Price MPG Weight Gear ratio
VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78
Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41
Chev. Monza 3667 2750 2.73
AMC Concord 4099 22 2930 3.58
Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54
5189 20 3280 2.93
Datsun 810 8129 21 2750 3.55

We do not know MPG for the third car or the make of the sixth.
Start by opening the Data Editor in edit mode. You can do this either by clicking on the Data Editor
(Edit) button, , or by typing edit in the Command window. You should be greeted by a Data Editor
with no data displayed. (If you see data, type clear in the Command window.) Stata shows the active
cell by highlighting it and displaying varname[obsnum] next to the input box in the Cursor Location
box. We will see below that we can navigate within a dataset by using this cell reference. The Data
Editor starts, by default, in the first row of the first column. Because there are no data, there are no
variable names, and so Stata shows var1[1] as the active cell.
We can enter these data either by working across the rows (observation by observation) or by working
down the columns (variable by variable). To enter the data observation by observation, press Tab after
entering each value until you have reached the end of the first row. In our case, we would type VW Rabbit,
press Tab, type 4697, press Tab, and continue entering data to complete the first observation.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 52

After you are finished with the first observation, select the second cell in the first column, either by
clicking within it or by navigating to it. At this point, your screen should look like this:

We can now enter the data for the second observation in the same fashion as the first—with one nice
difference: after we enter the last value in the row, pressing the Tab key will bring us to the first cell in
the third row. This is possible because the number of variables is known after the first observation has
been entered, so Stata knows when it has all the data for an observation.
We can enter the rest of the data by pressing the Tab key between entries, simply skipping over missing
values by tabbing through them.
If we had wanted to enter the data variable by variable, we could have done that by pressing Enter
between each make of car until all seven observations were entered, skipping past the missing entry by
pressing Enter twice. Once the first variable was entered, we would select the first cell in the second
column and enter the price data. We would continue this until we were finished.

Notes on data entry

There are several things to note about data entry and the feedback you get from the Data Editor as
you enter data:
• Stata does not allow blank columns or rows in the middle of your dataset.
Whenever you enter new variables or observations, always begin in the first empty column or row.
If you skip columns or rows, Stata will fill in the intervening columns or rows with missing values.
• Strings and value labels are color coded.
To help distinguish between the different types of variables in the Data Editor, string values, value
labels (see [GSW] 9 Labeling data), and all other values are displayed in different colors. You
can change the colors for strings and value labels by right-clicking on the Data Editor window and
selecting Preferences....
• A period (.) represents Stata’s system missing numeric value.
Stata has a system missing value, ‘.’, and extended missing values ‘.a’ through ‘.z’. By default,
Stata uses its system missing value.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 53

• The Tab key is smart.

As we saw above, after the first observation has been entered, Stata knows how many variables
you have. So at the end of the second observation (and all subsequent observations), Tab will
automatically take you back to the first column.
• The Cursor Location box both shows location and is used for navigation.
The Cursor Location box gives the location of the current cell. If you see, for example, var3[4],
this means that the current cell is the fourth observation of the variable named var3. You can
navigate to a particular cell by typing the variable name and the observation in the Cursor Location
box. If you wanted the second observation of var1 to be the active cell, typing var1 2 in the Cursor
Location box and pressing Enter would take you there.
• Double quotes around text are unnecessary in string variables.
Once Stata knows that a variable is a string variable (it holds text), there is no need to put quotes
around the values, even if the values look like a number. Thus, if you wanted to enter ZIP codes
as text, you would enter the first ZIP code with quotes (”02173”), but the rest would not need any
quotes.
• The arrow keys are context sensitive.
If you select a cell and type new data, using an arrow key will accept the change and move to a
new active cell. If you double-click on a cell, you can edit within the cell contents. In this case,
the right- and left-arrow keys move within the cell’s data.
• You can throw away changes to a cell.
If, while you are entering data in a cell, you decide you would like to cancel the changes, press the
Esc key.
• You can resize the cell editor for string variables.
When editing string variables, the cell editor can be resized so that more text can be visible.

Renaming and formatting variables

The data have now been entered into Stata, but the variable names leave something to be desired: they
have the default names var1, var2, . . . , var5. We would like to rename the variables so that they match
the column titles from our dataset. We would also like to give the variables descriptions and change their
formatting.
We will step through changing the name, label, and format of the price variable. We will then add a
note to the variable. Start by clicking on the var2 variable in the Variables window. The few properties
associated with var2 are now visible and editable in the Properties window. We may now systematically
change the properties of var2 to our choosing:
1. Double-click on var2 in the Name field to select the old variable name, and type price to over-
write the name.
2. Click under the new price name in the Label field.
3. Enter a worthwhile label, such as Price in dollars.
4. Click on %9.0g in the Format field.
5. Click on the ellipsis (. . .) button that appears. The Create format dialog opens.
6. You can see here that there are many possible formats, most of which are related to time. We want
commas in our numbers, so check the Use commas in numeric output checkbox. When you are
done, click on the OK button.
7. Click in the Notes field.
8. Click on the ellipsis (. . .) button that appears. A dialog called Notes for price opens.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 54

9. Click on the Add button and type a clever note.

10. When you are done typing, click on the Submit button, and then click on the Close button. This
note is now attached to the price variable.
11. Click on the disclosure control to see the note you just typed in the Properties window.
To edit the properties of another variable, click on the variable in the Variables window. We can name
the first variable make; the third, mpg; the fourth, weight; and the fifth, gear ratio. Just before you
rename var5 to gear ratio, your screen should look like this:

You need to know some rules for variable names:

• Stata is case sensitive.
Make, make, and MAKE are all different names to Stata. If you had named your variables Make,
Price, MPG, etc., then you would have to type them correctly capitalized in the future. Using all
lowercase letters is easier.
• A variable name must be 1–32 characters long.
• The characters can be letters (A–Z, a–z), digits (0–9), underscores ( ), or Unicode characters that
are not symbols.
• Spaces or other characters are not allowed.
• The first character of a variable name must be a letter, an underscore, or a Unicode character.
Although you can use an underscore to begin a variable name, it is highly discouraged. Such
names are used for temporary variable names in Stata. You would like your data to be permanent,
so using a temporary name could lead to great frustration.
For more information about variable names and value labels, see [GSW] 9 Labeling data; for display
formats, see [U] 12.5 Formats: Controlling how data are displayed.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 55

Copying and pasting data

You can copy and paste data by using the Data Editor. This is often a simple way to bring data into
Stata from any other applications such as spreadsheets or databases.
1. Select the data that you wish to copy by using one of these means:
• Click once on a variable name or column heading to select an entire column.
• Click once on an observation number or row heading to select the entire row.
• Click and drag the mouse to select a range of cells.
2. Copy the data to the Clipboard by right-clicking within the selected range, and select Copy.
3. Paste the data from the Clipboard by right-clicking on the top left cell of the area to which you
wish to paste, and select Paste.
We will illustrate copying and pasting an observation by making a copy of the first observation and
pasting it at the end of the dataset.
Start by clicking on the observation number of the first observation. Doing so highlights all the data
in the row. Right-click on the same location (there is no need to move the mouse), and select Copy:

Click on the first cell in the eighth row, right-click while you are still in that cell, and choose Paste
from the resulting menu. You can see that the observation was successfully duplicated.

Notes on copying and pasting

• The above example illustrated copying and pasting within the Data Editor. You can use roughly the
same technique to copy and paste between other applications and Stata and between Stata and other
applications. The easiest way to see if copying and pasting works properly with another application
is to try it. The one requirement for things to work well is that the external application must copy
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 56

tables in some delimited form, as do spreadsheet applications, many database applications, and
some word processors. Using Edit > Paste special... gives some added flexibility to the formats
you can paste into the Data Editor. If a simple paste does not give you what you expected, you
should try Edit > Paste special.... For more information on file-based methods for importing data
into Stata, see [GSW] 8 Importing data.
• If you are copying and pasting data with value labels, you have a choice. You can copy variables
with value labels as text, using the value labels as the actual values, or you can copy said variables
as their underlying encoded numbers. Copying with the value labels is the default. If you would
like the other choice, select View > Show all value labels.

Changing data
As its name suggests, the Data Editor can be used to edit your dataset. As we have seen already, it
can be used to edit the data themselves as well as the description and display options for the variables.
Here is an example for making some changes to the automobile dataset, which illustrates both methods
for using the Data Editor and its documentation trail. We will also keep snapshots of the dataset as we
are working so that we can revert to previous versions of the dataset in case we make a mistake.
We would like to investigate the dataset, work with value labels, delete the trunk variable, and make
a new variable showing gas consumption per 100 miles. These tasks will illustrate the basics of working
in the Data Editor.
Start by typing sysuse auto into the Command window. If you worked the previous example, you
will get an error and are told that the dataset in memory has changed since it was last saved. This is good—
Stata is keeping you from inadvertently throwing away the unsaved changes to your current dataset as it
loads auto.dta. If you would like to save the dataset you have been working on, select File > Save and
save the dataset in an appropriate location. Otherwise, type clear in the Command window, and press
Enter to clear out the data, and then load that auto.dta.
Once auto.dta is loaded, start the Data Editor.
1. We remember that our grandfather had a Toronado, which looked sleek but seemed to require a lot
of fill-ups. We would like to see if this car is in the dataset. To find it, we select Edit > Find...,
type Toronado, and press Enter. We see that this make of car got 16 miles per gallon.
2. We would like to see which cars have the lowest and highest gas mileages. To do this, right-click
on the column heading of the mpg column. Select Data > Sort data... from the contextual menu.
A dialog will pop up asking how you want to sort, defaulting to sorting in ascending order. Click
on OK. (Stata worries about sort order because sort order can affect reproducibility when using
resampling techniques. This is a good thing.) You will see that the data have now been sorted
by mpg in ascending order. The lowest-mileage cars are at the top of the screen; by scrolling to
the bottom of the dataset, you can find the highest-mileage cars. You also could have sorted by
selecting Tools > Sort data... once the mpg variable was selected.
3. We would like to investigate repair records and hence sort by the rep78 variable. (Do this now.)
We see that the Starfire and Firebird both had poor repair records, but we would like to see the
cars with good repair records. We could scroll to the bottom of the dataset, but it will be faster to
use the Cursor Location box: type rep78 74 and press Enter to make rep78[74] the active cell.
We notice that the last five entries for rep78 appear as dots. The dots mean that these values are
missing. A few items of note:
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 57

• As we can see from the result of the sort, Stata views missing values as being larger than all
numeric nonmissing values. In technical terms, this means that rep78 >= . is equivalent to
missing(rep78).
• What we do not see here is that Stata has multiple missing-value indicators: . is Stata’s
default or system missing-value indicator, and .a, .b, . . . , .z are Stata’s extended missing
values. Extended missing values are useful for indicating the reason why a value is unknown.
• The different missing values sort among themselves: . < .a < .b < · · · < .z. See
[U] 12.2.1 Missing values for full details.
4. We would like to make the repair records readable. Click on rep78 in the Variables window.
5. Click on the Value label field in the Properties window, and then click on the ellipsis (. . .) button
that appears. This opens the Manage value labels dialog. We need to define a new value label for
the repair records.
a. Click on the Create label button. You will see the Create label dialog.
b. Type a name for the label, say, repairs, in the Label name box.
c. Press the Tab key or click within the Value field.
d. Type 1 for the value, press the Tab key, and type atrocious for the label.
e. Press the Enter key to create the pairing.
f. Repeat steps d and e to make all the pairings: 2 with “bad”, 3 with “OK”, 4 with “good”,
and 5 with “stupendous”.
g. Click on the OK button to finish creating the value label.
h. Click on the disclosure control, , to show the label—you should see this:

If you have something else, you can edit the label by clicking on the Edit label button.
i. Click on the Close button to close the Manage value labels dialog.
Now that the label has been created, attach it to the rep78 variable by clicking on the down arrow
in the Value label field and selecting the repairs label. You can now see the labels displayed in
place of the values.
6. Suppose that we found the original source of the data in a time capsule, so we could replace some of
the missing values for rep78. We could type the values into cells. We can also assign the values by
right-clicking within a cell with a missing value and choosing a value from Data > Value labels >
Assign value from value label “repairs”. This strategy can be useful when a value label has many
possible values.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 58

7. We would now like to delete the trunk variable. We can do this by right-clicking on the trunk
variable name at the top of the column and selecting the Data > Drop selected data menu item.
Because this can lead to data loss, the Data Editor asks whether we would like to drop the selected
variable. Click on the Yes button.
8. To finish up, we would like to create a variable containing the gallons of gasoline per 100 miles
driven for each of the cars.
a. Right-click within any cell, and choose the Data > Add variable... menu item to bring up
the generate dialog.
b. Type gp100m in the Variable name field.
c. Being sure that the Specify a value or an expression radio button is selected, type 100/mpg in
its field. We could have clicked on the Create... button to open the Expression Builder dia-
log, but this formula was simple enough to type. (You might want to explore the Expression
Builder right now to see what it can do.)
d. Be sure that the Add at the end of dataset item is chosen from the Position of new variable
list.
e. Click on OK. You can scroll to the right to see the newly created variable.
Throughout this data-editing session, we have been using the Data Editor to manipulate the data.
If you look in the Results window, you will see the commands and their output. You can also see all
the commands generated by the Data Editor in the History window. If you wanted to save the editing
commands to use again later, you could do the following steps:
1. Click in the History window on the last command that came from the Data Editor.
2. Scroll up until you find the sort mpg command you ran immediately after opening the Data Editor,
and Shift-click on it.
3. Right-click on one of the highlighted commands.
4. Select Send selected to Do-file Editor.
This procedure will save all the commands you highlighted into the Do-file Editor. You could then
save them as a do-file, which you could run again later. We will talk more about the Do-file Editor in
[GSW] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata. You can find help about do-files in [U] 16 Do-
files.
If you want to save this dataset, save it under a new name by using File > Save as... in the main Stata
window to prevent overwriting the original dataset.

Working with snapshots

The Data Editor allows you to save to disk snapshots of whatever dataset you are working on. These
are temporary copies of the dataset—they will be deleted when you exit Stata, so they need to be treated
as temporary. Still, there are many uses for snapshots, such as
• saving a temporary copy of the data in memory so that another dataset can be opened and viewed;
• saving stages of work, which can be recovered in case you do something disastrous; and
• saving pieces of datasets while doing analyses.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 59

We will keep using auto.dta from above; if you are starting here, you can start fresh by typing
sysuse auto in the Command window to open the dataset. (If you get a warning about data in memory
being lost, either use clear or save your data. See [GSW] 5 Opening and saving Stata datasets for
more information.) If we open the Data Editor and click on the Snapshots tab beneath the Variables
window, we see the following window. If you are starting afresh, you will see numbers rather than labels
for rep78.

To begin with, only one button is active in the Snapshots toolbar. Click on the active button—the Add
button, . It brings up a dialog asking for a label, or name, for the snapshot. Give it an inventive name,
such as Start, and press Enter. You can see that a snapshot is now listed in the Snapshots window, and
all the buttons in the toolbar are now active. The following buttons appear in the Snapshots window:
Add: Save a new snapshot with a timestamp and label.

Remove: Erase a snapshot. This action deletes the temporary snapshot file but does not
affect the data in memory.

Change label: Edit the label of the selected (highlighted) snapshot.

Restore: Replace the data in memory with the data from the selected snapshot. You will
get a dialog asking you to confirm your action.
You should now try manipulating the dataset by using the tools we have seen. Once you have done
that, create another snapshot, calling it Changed. Open the Snapshots window and restore the Start
snapshot by either double-clicking it or clicking first on it and then on the Restore button to see where
you started. You can then go back to where you were working by restoring your Changed snapshot.
Snapshots continue to be available either until they are deleted or until you exit Stata. You can thus
use snapshots of one dataset while working on another. You will find your own uses for snapshots—just
take care to save the datasets you want for future use because the snapshots are temporary.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 60

Dates and the Data Editor

The Data Editor has two special tools for working with dates in Stata. To see these in action, we will
need to open another dataset. Either save your dataset or clear it out, and then type sysuse sp500 in
the Command window. Look in the Data Editor to see what you have.

You can see a date variable that has January 2, 2001, as its first day, though it is being displayed in
Stata’s default format for dates.
We will start with formatting:
1. Select the date variable in the Variables window to the right of the data table.
2. In the Properties window, select the Format row and click on the ellipsis button that appears.
3. The Create format dialog tells us three pieces of information about the date format:
• These are daily dates. As you can see, Stata understands other types of dates that are often
used in financial data.
• Looking at the bottom of the dialog, you can see that Stata’s default date format is %td. This
means that the variable contains time values that are to be interpreted as daily dates.
• This default format is displayed as, for example, 07apr2021.
4. There are many premade date formats in the Samples pane at the top right of the Create format
dialog. Click on April 7, 2021. You can see how the format would be specified at the bottom of
the dialog.
5. Click on OK to close the Create format dialog. You can see that the dates are now displayed
differently.
This is a very simple way to change date formats. For complete information on dates and date formats,
see [D] Datetime.
We will now change some of the dates to illustrate how this can be done simply, regardless of the
format in which the dates are displayed. If you look in the upper-right corner of the Data Editor, you
will see the Time/Date input mask field, which shows DMY. This field affects how dates are entered when
editing data.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 61

By default, the input mask is set to DMY. This means dates can be entered in many different fashions,
as long as the order of the date components is day, month, year. Try the following:
1. Click in the first observation of date so that the Cursor Location shows date[1].
2. Type 18jan2021 and press the Enter key. Stata understands the DMY input mask and knows enough
to enter the new date in the selected cell.
3. Enter 30042021 and press Enter. Stata still understands the input mask, even though there are no
separators.
4. Click within the Time/Date input mask field, and choose MDY from the drop-down menu.
5. Click on any observation in the date column.
6. Type March 15, 2021 and press Enter. Stata will still understand.
Working in this fashion is the fastest way to edit dates by hand. If you look in the Results window, you
will see why.
We are now finished with this dataset, so type clear and press Enter.

Data Editor advice

As you could see above, a small mistake in the Data Editor could cause large problems in your dataset.
You really must take care in how you edit your data.
• People who care about data integrity know that editors are dangerous—it is easy to accidentally
make changes. Never use the Data Editor in edit mode when you just want to look at your
data. Use the Data Editor in browse mode (or use the browse command).
• If you must edit your data, protect yourself by limiting the dataset’s exposure. For example, if you
need to change rep78 only if it is missing, find a way to look at just the missing values for rep78
and any other variables needed to make the change. This will make it impossible for you to change
(damage) variables or observations other than those you view. We will explore this aspect shortly.
• Even with these caveats, Stata’s Data Editor is safer than most because it records commands in
the Results window. Use this feature to log your output and make a permanent record of the
changes. Then you can verify that the changes you made are the changes you wanted to make. See
[GSW] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs for information on creating log files.

Filtering and hiding

We would now like to investigate restricting our view of the data we see in the editor. This feature is
useful for the reasons mentioned above, and as we will see, it helps if we would like to browse through
the data of a large dataset. In any case, we would like to focus on some data, not all the data, whether we
focus on some of the variables, some of the observations, or even just some observations within some
variables. We would also like to change the order of the variables. We will show you how this is done
by using both the graphical interface and commands.
Open the automobile dataset by typing sysuse auto. If you get an error message, type clear and
try again. Once you have done that, open the Data Editor.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 62

Suppose that we would like to edit only those observations for which rep78 is missing. We will need
to look at the make of the car so that we know which observations we are working with, but we do not
need to see any other variables. We will work as though we had a very large dataset to work with.
1. Before we get started, try experimenting with the Variables window.
a. Drag variables up and down the list. Doing so changes the order of the variables’ columns
in the Data Editor. It does not change their order in the dataset itself.
b. Uncheck some of the checkboxes in the first column to hide some of the variables.
c. Type a search criterion in the Filter variables here field. Just like in the Variables window in
the main Stata window, the default is to ignore case and find any variables or variable labels
containing any of the words in the filter. Clicking on the wrench on the left will allow you to
change this behavior as well as to add or remove additional columns containing information
about the variables. The filtering of variables in the list affects what is displayed in the
Variables window; it does not affect what variables’ data are displayed. When you are done,
delete your filter text.
2. Right-click on any variable in the Variables window, and select Select all from the contextual
menu.
3. Click on any checkbox to deselect all the variables.
4. Click on the make variable to select it, and deselect all the other variables.
5. Click on the checkbox for make.
6. Click on the checkbox for rep78.
If you look in the Command window, you can see that no commands have been issued, because hiding
the variables does not affect the dataset—it affects only what shows in the Data Editor.
We now have protected ourselves by using only those variables that we need. We should now reduce
our view to only those observations for which rep78 is missing. This is simple.
1. Click on the Filter observations button, , in the Data Editor’s toolbar.
2. Enter missing(rep78) in the Filter by expression field.
3. Click on the Apply filter button.
4. If you are curious, click on the ellipsis button. It opens up an Expression Builder dialog. This lists
the wide variety of functions available in Stata. See the Stata Functions Reference Manual.
Now we are focused on the part of the dataset in which we would like to work, and we cannot destroy or
mistakenly alter other data by stray keystrokes in the Data Editor window.
It is worth learning how to hide variables and filter observations in the Data Editor from the Command
window. This can be quite convenient if you are going to restrict your view, as we did above. To work
from the Command window, we must use the edit command together with a varlist (variable list) along
with if and in qualifiers in the Command window. By using a varlist, we restrict the variables we
look at, whereas the if and in qualifiers restrict the observations we see. ([GSW] 10 Listing data and
basic command syntax contains many examples of using a command with a variable list and if and
in.) Suppose we want to correct the missing values for rep78. The minimum amount of data we need
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 63

to expose are make and rep78. To see this minimal amount of information and hence to minimize our
exposure to making mistakes, we enter the commands
 
. sysuse auto
(1978 automobile data)
. edit make rep78 if missing(rep78)
 

and we would see the following window:

Once again, we are safe and sound.

Keep this lesson in mind if you edit your data. It is a lesson well learned.

Browse mode
The purpose of using the Data Editor in browse mode is to look at data without altering them by stray
keystrokes. You can start the Data Editor in browse mode by clicking on the Data Editor (Browse) but-
ton, , or by typing browse in the Command window. When you work in browse mode, all contextual
menu items that would let you alter the data, the labels, or any of the display formats for the variables are
disabled. You may view a variable’s properties with the Properties menu item, but you may not make
any changes. You still can filter observations and hide variables to get a restricted view because these
actions do not change the dataset.
Note: Because you can still use Stata menus not related to the Data Editor and because you can still
type commands in the Commands window, it is possible to change the data even if the Data Editor is in
browse mode. In fact, this means you can watch how your commands affect the dataset. You are merely
restricted from using the Data Editor itself to change the data.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 64

Variable labels in column headers and column width control

Variable labels can also be shown in the column headers. Go to View and check Show variable labels
in column headers. Given the length of the variable labels, you can make the column a bit wider by
dragging the left–right arrow column divider between columns.

Drag the column divider and make sure all variable labels are fully displayed. Column widths are
preserved when saving the dataset. When you have a string value that is longer than the column width,
the value displayed in the cell view will be truncated. The Data Editor has tooltip support for truncated
cell views. You can hover the mouse pointer over the cell to view the full string value in a tooltip. You
can also double-click in the cell to bring up a resizeable cell editor for long strings.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 65

Pinning rows and columns

The Data Editor can pin rows and columns. Pinned rows or columns do not scroll with the rest of the
data, so they will stay in view as you scroll through the dataset. Let’s switch to another dataset by issuing
sysuse census. This is the 1980 census data by states in the United States. Let’s start the Data Editor in
browse mode. There are 50 states and we are limited to the screen size, so we might not be able to browse
all observations and variables at the same time. Moreover, when browsing the data, sometimes we might
want to pin some states or observations so we can eyeball the difference. Let’s see some examples below.
After right-clicking on any cell, you will see that Pin selected row or column is disabled.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 66

If you first click on a column header to highlight a particular variable, such as state, right-clicking
brings up a similar menu but with the option Pin selected variables enabled. More than one variable
can be selected and pinned.

After pinning the state information, we can horizontally scroll to the right to see other variables that
previously could not fit in the window, such as marriage and divorce, with the state information pinned
on the left.
 [ GSW ] 6 Using the Data Editor 67

Similarly, you can highlight one or more observations and right-click to pin a particular row or multiple
rows.

Let’s try pinning the observations from 1 through 3, and then let’s vertically scroll down to other states
and compare them with the first three.

The pinning feature can be invoked in both browse and edit modes. You can pin both rows and columns
at the same time. Right-click on any pinned rows or columns, and select Clear pinned variables or
observations to unpin them.
7 Using the Variables Manager

The Variables Manager

This chapter discusses Stata’s Variables Manager. To get started, open the automobile dataset by
typing sysuse auto, clear in the Command window. You open the Variables Manager by selecting
Data > Variables Manager or clicking on the Variables Manager button .

The Variables Manager is a tool for managing properties of variables both individually and in groups.
It can be used to create variable and value labels, rename variables, change display formats, and manage
notes. It has the ability to filter and group variables as well as to create variable lists. Users will find
these features useful for managing large datasets.
Any action you take in the Variables Manager results in a command being issued to Stata as though you
had typed it in the Command window. This means that you can keep good records and learn commands
by using the Variables Manager.

The Variable pane

The left pane of the Variables Manager is called the Variable pane, though it has no explicit title on
the screen. It shows the list of variables in the dataset. This list can be manipulated in a variety of ways.
• The variables can be filtered by entering text into the filter box in the upper-left corner. This can
be a good way to zoom in on similarly named or labeled variables.
• The list can be sorted by clicking on the column title.
a. If you click on a column title, it will sort in ascending order.
b. A second click on the same column title will change to sorting in descending order.
c. Clicking on the hash mark (#) restores the sort order to the original variable order.
The sort order affects only how the data appear in the Variable Managers window—the dataset
itself stays the same.
68
 [ GSW ] 7 Using the Variables Manager 69

• The order of the columns can be changed by dragging the column titles. To restore the original
column headings, right-click on the column titles and select Restore column defaults.
• The variables can be grouped by values in one or more columns. This is done by dragging the
column titles into the grouping bar. The grouping can be canceled by dragging the column titles
back into the column titles row. Here is an example of auto.dta grouped by variable type:

Grouping by variable label can be a good way to find unlabeled variables.

Right-clicking on the Variable pane

Right-clicking on the Variable pane displays a menu from which you can do many common tasks:
• Edit variable properties to change the focus to the Variable Properties pane. This will expose the
Variable Properties pane if it has been automatically hidden.
• Keep only selected variables to keep only the selected variables in the dataset and to drop all the
others.
• Drop selected variables to drop all the selected variables from the dataset.
• Manage notes for selected variable... to open a window that allows adding and deleting notes
for a single variable. This is disabled if multiple variables are selected.
• Manage notes for dataset... to open a window that allows adding and deleting notes for the dataset
as a whole.
• Copy varlist to copy the names of the selected variables to the Clipboard.
• Select all to select all visible variables. If a variable has become hidden because of the filter, it
will not be selected.
• Send varlist to Command window to insert the names of the selected variables in the Command
window. Combined with grouping and sorting, this can be a useful way to create variable lists in
large datasets.
• Print... to print the Variable pane. You can change the widths of the printed columns by changing
the widths of the columns in the Variables Manager.
 [ GSW ] 7 Using the Variables Manager 70

The Variable properties pane

The Variable Properties pane can be used to manipulate the properties of variables selected in the
Variable pane. With one variable selected, you can manipulate all properties of the variable. With many
variables selected, you can change their formats or types as well as assign value labels all at once. These
fields work in the same fashion as those shown in Renaming and formatting variables in [GSW] 6 Using
the Data Editor. We can also manage the notes Stata allows you to attach to variables and the dataset—
we will show an example below.
The Variable Properties pane is, in actuality, a docking window, like those discussed in Auto Hide and
pinning in [GSW] 2 The Stata user interface. You can see this because of the pushpin in its upper-right
corner. If you click on the pushpin, the window will automatically hide when not in use. You can also
dock the window in another part of the Variables Manager window by dragging it by its title bar to one
of the docking guides.

Managing notes
Stata allows you to attach notes to both variables and the dataset as a whole. These are simple text
notes that you can use to document whatever you like—the source of the dataset, data collection quirks
associated with a variable, what you need to investigate about a variable, or anything else.
Start by selecting a variable in the Variable pane. We will work with the price variable. Click on the
Manage... button next to the Notes field, and you will see the following dialog appear:
 [ GSW ] 7 Using the Variables Manager 71

We will add a few notes:

1. Click on the Add button to add a note.
2. Type TS - started working. TS with a trailing space inserts a timestamp in the note.
3. Add two more notes. We added two notes about prices:

It is worth experimenting with adding, deleting, and editing notes. Notes can be an invaluable memory
aid when working on projects that last a long time. Anytime you manipulate notes in the Notes Manager,
you create Stata commands.
8 Importing data

Copying and pasting

One of the easiest ways to get data into Stata is often overlooked: you can copy data from most appli-
cations that understand the concept of a table and then paste the data into the Data Editor. This approach
works for all spreadsheet applications, many database applications, some word-processing applications,
and even some webpages. Just copy the full range of data, paste it into the Data Editor, and everything
will probably work well. You can even copy a text file that has the pieces of data separated by commas
and then paste it into the Data Editor.
Suppose that your friend has a small dataset about some very old cars.
VW Rabbit,4697,25,1930,3.78
Olds 98,8814,21,4060,2.41
Chev. Monza,3667,,2750,2.73
,4099,22,2930,3.58
Datsun 510,5079,24,2280,3.54
Buick Regal,5189,20,3280,2.93
Datsun 810,8129,,2750,3.55

You would like to put these data into Stata. Doing so is easier than you think:
1. Clear out your current dataset by typing clear.
2. Copy the above data.
3. Open the Data Editor in edit mode.
4. Select Edit > Paste special....
5. Stata sees that the column delimiters are commas and shows how the data would look.
6. Click on the OK button.
You can see that Stata has imported the data nicely.
Later in this chapter, we would like to bring these data into Stata without copying and pasting, so we
would like to save them as a text file. Go back to the main Stata window, and click on the Do-file Editor
button, , to open a new Do-file Editor window. Paste the data in the Do-file Editor, then click on the
Save button. Navigate to your working directory, and save the file as a few cars.csv. If you do not
know what your working directory is, look in the status bar at the bottom of the main Stata window.
Be careful if you are copying data from a spreadsheet because spreadsheets can contain special for-
matting that ruins its rectangular form. Be sure that your spreadsheet does not contain blank rows, blank
columns, repeated headers, or merged cells because these can cause trouble. As long as your spreadsheet
looks like a table, you will be fine.

Commands for importing data

Copying and pasting is a great way to bring data into Stata, but if you need a clear audit trail for
your data, you will need another way to bring data into Stata. The rest of this chapter will explain how
to do this. You will also learn methods that lend themselves better to repetitive tasks and methods for
importing data from a wide variety of sources.
Stata has various commands for importing data. The three main commands for reading non–Stata
datasets in text are
72
 [ GSW ] 8 Importing data 73

• import delimited, which is made for reading text files created by spreadsheet or database pro-
grams or, more generally, for reading text files with clearly defined column delimiters such as
commas, tabs, semicolons, or spaces;
• infile, which is made for reading simple data that are separated by spaces or rigidly formatted
data aligned in columns; and
• infix, which is made for data aligned in columns but possibly split across rows.
Stata has other commands that can read other types of files and can even get data from external
databases without the need for an interim file:
• The import excel command can read Microsoft Excel files directly, either as an .xls or as an
.xlsx file.
• The import sas command can read native SAS files, so data can be transferred from SAS to Stata
in this fashion.
• The import spss command can read IBM SPSS Statistics files.
• The import sasxport5 command can read version SAS V5 Transport files. The import
sasxport8 command can read version SAS V8 Transport files.
• The odbc command can be used to pull data directly from any data sources for which you have
ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) drivers.
• The jdbc command allows you to load data from a database, execute SQL statements on a database,
and insert data into a database using JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) drivers.
Stata can import more formats; see [D] import for the full list.
Each command expects the file that it is reading to be in a specific format. This chapter will explain
some of those formats and give some examples. For the full description, consult the Data Management
Reference Manual.

The import delimited command

The import delimited command was developed to read in text files that were created by spread-
sheet or database programs because these are common formats for sharing datasets on the Internet. All
spreadsheet programs and most database applications have an option to save the dataset as a text file
with the columns delimited with either tab characters or commas. Some of these programs also save the
column titles (variable names, in Stata) in the text file.
To read in such a file, you have only to type import delimited filename, where filename is the name
of the text file. The import delimited command will figure out what the delimiter character is (tab
or comma) and what type of data is in each column. As always, if filename contains spaces, put double
quotes around the filename, and include the path if filename is not in the current working directory.
By default, the import delimited command understands files that use the tab or comma as the
column delimiter automatically. If you have a file that uses another character as the delimiter, use import
delimited’s delimiters() option.
Earlier in this chapter, you saved a file called a few cars.csv in Copying and pasting in [GSW] 8 Im-
porting data. These data correspond to the make, price, MPG, weight, and gear ratio of a few very old
cars. The variable names are not in the file (so import delimited will assign its own names), and the
fields are separated by commas. Clear out any existing data, then use import delimited to read the
data in this file. Because there are spaces in the filename, it must be enclosed in double quotes.
 [ GSW ] 8 Importing data 74

 
. clear
. import delimited "a few cars.csv"
(encoding automatically selected: ISO-8859-9)
(5 vars, 7 obs)
 

You can look at the data in the Data Editor, and it will look just like the earlier result from copying
and pasting. We will now list the data so that we can see them in the manual. The separator(0) option
suppresses the horizontal separator line that is drawn after every fifth observation by default.
 
. list, separator(0)

v1 v2 v3 v4 v5

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54
6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55

 

If you want to specify better variable names, you can include the desired names in the command.
When you specify variable names, you must also use the using keyword before the filename.
 
. import delimited make price mpg weight gear_ratio using "a few cars.csv"
(encoding automatically selected: ISO-8859-9)
(5 vars, 7 obs)
. list, separator(0)

make price mpg weight gear_r~o

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54
6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55

 

As a side note about displaying data, Stata listed gear ratio as gear r~o in the output from list.
gear r~o is a unique abbreviation for the variable gear ratio. Stata displays the abbreviated variable
name when variable names are longer than eight characters.
 [ GSW ] 8 Importing data 75

To prevent Stata from abbreviating gear ratio, you could specify the abbreviate(10) option:
 
. list, separator(0) abbreviate(10)

make price mpg weight gear_ratio

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54
6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55

 

For more information on the ~ abbreviation and on list, see [GSW] 10 Listing data and basic
command syntax.
We will use this dataset again in the next chapter, so we would like to save it. Type save afewcars,
and press Enter in the Command window to save the dataset.
For this simple example, you could have copied the contents of the file and pasted it into the Data
Editor by using Paste special... and choosing comma as the delimiter.
For text files that have no nice delimiters or for which observations could be spread out across many
lines, Stata has two more commands: infile and infix. See [D] import for more information about
how to read in such files.

Importing files from other software

Stata has some more specialized methods for reading data that were created by other applications and
stored in their proprietary formats.
The import excel command is made for reading files created by Microsoft Excel. See [D] import
excel for full details.
The import spss command is made for reading files created by IBM SPSS Statistics. See [D] import
spss for full details.
The import sas command is made for reading files created by SAS. See [D] import sas for full details.
The import sasxport5 and import sasxport8 commands can read SAS V5 and SAS V8 Transport
files. See [D] import sasxport5 and [D] import sasxport8 for full details.
If you have software that supports ODBC, you can read data by using the odbc command without the
need to create interim files. See [D] odbc for full details.
The jdbc command allows you to connect to, load data from, insert data into, and execute queries on
a database using JDBC. See [D] jdbc for full details.
 [ GSW ] 8 Importing data 76

Here is a brief summary of the choices:

• If you have a Microsoft Excel .xls or .xlsx file, use import excel.
• If you have an IBM SPSS Statistics .sav file, use import spss.
• If you have a SAS .sas7bdat file created on a Windows machine, use import sas.
• If you have a file exported from a spreadsheet or database application to a tab-delimited or CSV
file, use import delimited.
• If you have a fixed-format file, either use infile with a dictionary or use infix.
• If you have a database accessible with ODBC, use odbc.
• If you have a database accessible with JDBC, use jdbc.
• If you have a SAS V5 Transport file, use import sasxport5.
• If you have a SAS V8 Transport file, use import sasxport8.
• If you have economic data from the Federal Reserve Data, use import fred.
• If you subscribe to any Haver Analytics databases, use import haver.
• If you have a dBASE file, use import dbase.
• If you have a table, you could try copying it and pasting it into the Data Editor.
• Finally, you can purchase a third-party transfer program that will convert the other software’s data
file format to Stata’s data file format.
9 Labeling data

Making data readable

This chapter discusses, in brief, labeling of the dataset, variables, and values. Such labeling is critical
to careful use of data. Labeling variables with descriptive names clarifies their meanings. Labeling
values of numerical categorical variables ensures that the real-world meanings of the encodings are not
forgotten. These points are crucial when sharing data with others, including your future self. Labels are
also used in the output of most Stata commands, so proper labeling of the dataset will produce much
more readable results. We will work through an example of properly labeling a dataset, its variables, and
the values of one encoded variable.

The dataset structure: The describe command

At the end of The import delimited command in [GSW] 8 Importing data, we saved a dataset called
afewcars.dta. Let’s put this dataset into a shape that a colleague would understand. Here is what it
contains.
 
. use afewcars
. list, separator(0)

make price mpg weight gear_r~o

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54
6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55

 

The data allow us to make some guesses at the values in the dataset, but, for example, we do not
know the units in which the price or weight is measured, and the term “mpg” could be confusing for
people outside the United States. Perhaps we can learn something from the description of the dataset.
Stata has the aptly named describe command for this purpose (as we saw in [GSW] 1 Introducing
Stata—sample session).

77
 [ GSW ] 9 Labeling data 78

 
. describe
Contains data from afewcars.dta
Observations: 7
Variables: 5 20 Nov 2024 06:27

Variable Storage Display Value

name type format label Variable label

make str18 %18s

price float %9.0g
mpg float %9.0g
weight float %9.0g
gear_ratio float %9.0g

Sorted by:
 

Though there is precious little information that could help us as a researcher, we can glean some
information here about how Stata thinks of the data from the first three columns of the output.
1. The Variable name is the name we use to tell Stata about a variable.
2. The Storage type (otherwise known as the data type) is the way in which Stata stores the data in a
variable. There are six different storage types, each having its own memory requirement:
a. byte for integers between −127 and 100 (using 1 byte of memory per observation)
b. int for integers between −32,767 and 32,740 (using 2 bytes of memory per observation)
c. long for integers between −2,147,483,647 and 2,147,483,620 (using 4 bytes of memory per ob-
servation)
d. float for real numbers with 8.5 digits of precision (using 4 bytes of memory per observation)
e. double for real numbers with 16.5 digits of precision (using 8 bytes of memory per observation)
f. For strings (text) between 1 and 2,045 bytes (using 1 byte of memory per observation per character
for ASCII and up to 4 bytes of memory per Unicode character):
str1 for 1-byte-long strings
str2 for 2-byte-long strings
str3 for 3-byte-long strings
...
str2045 for 2,045-byte-long strings
Stata also has a strL storage type for strings of arbitrary length up to 2,000,000,000 bytes. strLs
can also hold binary data, often referred to as BLOBs, or binary large objects, in databases. We will
not illustrate these here.
Storage types affect both the precision of computations and the size of datasets. A quick guide to
storage types is available at help data types or in [D] Data types.
3. The Display format controls how the variable is displayed; see [U] 12.5 Formats: Controlling how
data are displayed. By default, Stata sets it to something reasonable given the storage type.
We want to make this dataset into something containing all the information we need.
 [ GSW ] 9 Labeling data 79

To see what a well-labeled dataset looks like, we can look at a dataset stored at the Stata Press repos-
itory. We need not load the data (and disturb what we are doing); we do not even need a copy of the
dataset on our machine. (You will learn more about Stata’s Internet capabilities in [GSW] 19 Updating
and extending Stata—Internet functionality.) All we need to do is direct describe to look at the
proper file by using the command describe using filename.
 
. describe using https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/auto
Contains data 1978 automobile data
Observations: 74 13 Apr 2022 17:45
Variables: 12

Variable Storage Display Value

name type format label Variable label

make str18 %-18s Make and model

price int %8.0gc Price
mpg int %8.0g Mileage (mpg)
rep78 int %8.0g Repair record 1978
headroom float %6.1f Headroom (in.)
trunk int %8.0g Trunk space (cu. ft.)
weight int %8.0gc Weight (lbs.)
length int %8.0g Length (in.)
turn int %8.0g Turn circle (ft.)
displacement int %8.0g Displacement (cu. in.)
gear_ratio float %6.2f Gear ratio
foreign byte %8.0g origin Car origin

Sorted by: foreign

 

This output is much more informative. There are three locations where labels are attached that help
explain what the dataset contains:
1. In the first line, 1978 automobile data is the data label. It gives information about the contents of
the dataset. Data can be labeled by selecting Data > Data utilities > Label utilities > Label dataset,
by using the label data command, or by editing the Label field in the Data portion of the Properties
window. When doing this in the main window, be sure that the Properties window is unlocked.
2. There is a variable label attached to each variable. Variable labels are how we would refer to the
variable in normal, everyday conversation. Here they also contain information about the units of the
variables. Variables can be labeled by selecting the variable in the Variables window and editing the
Label field in the Properties window. You can also change a variable label by using the Variables
Manager or by using the label variable command.
3. The foreign variable has an attached value label. Value labels allow numeric variables such as
foreign to have words associated with numeric codes. The describe output tells you that the
numeric variable foreign has value label origin associated with it. Although not revealed by
describe, the variable foreign takes on the values 0 and 1, and the value label origin associates
0 with Domestic and 1 with Foreign. If you browse the data (see [GSW] 6 Using the Data Edi-
tor), foreign appears to contain the values “Domestic” and “Foreign”. The values in a variable are
labeled in two stages. The value label must first be defined. This can be done in the Data Editor, or
in the Variables Manager, or by selecting Data > Data utilities > Label utilities > Manage value
labels or by typing the label define command. After the labels have been defined, they must be
attached to the proper variables, either by selecting Data > Data utilities > Label utilities > Assign
 [ GSW ] 9 Labeling data 80

value label to variables or by using the label values command. Note: It is not necessary for the
value label to have a name different from that of the variable. You could just as easily have used a
value label named foreign.

Labeling datasets and variables

We will now load the afewcars.dta dataset and give it proper labels. We will do this with the
Command window to illustrate that it is simple to do in this fashion. Earlier in Renaming and formatting
variables in [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor, we used the Data Editor to achieve a similar purpose. If
you use the Data Editor for the material here, you will end up with the same commands in your log; we
would like to illustrate a way to work directly with commands.
 
. use afewcars
. describe
Contains data from afewcars.dta
Observations: 7
Variables: 5 20 Nov 2024 06:28

Variable Storage Display Value

name type format label Variable label

make str18 %18s

price float %9.0g
mpg float %9.0g
weight float %9.0g
gear_ratio float %9.0g

Sorted by:
. label data "A few 1978 cars"
. label variable make "Make and model"
. label variable price "Price (USD)"
. label variable mpg "Mileage (miles per gallon)"
. label variable weight "Vehicle weight (lbs.)"
. label variable gear_ratio "Gear ratio"
. describe
Contains data from afewcars.dta
Observations: 7 A few 1978 cars
Variables: 5 20 Nov 2024 06:28

Variable Storage Display Value

name type format label Variable label

make str18 %18s Make and model

price float %9.0g Price (USD)
mpg float %9.0g Mileage (miles per gallon)
weight float %9.0g Vehicle weight (lbs.)
gear_ratio float %9.0g Gear ratio

Sorted by:
Note: Dataset has changed since last saved.
. save afewcars2
file afewcars2.dta saved
 
 [ GSW ] 9 Labeling data 81

Labeling values of variables

We will now add a new indicator variable to the dataset that is 0 if the car was made in the United
States and 1 if it was made in another country. Open the Data Editor and use your previously gained
knowledge to add a foreign variable whose values match what is shown in this listing:
 
. list, separator(0)

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 1

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 0
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 0
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 0
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 1
6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 0
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 1

 

You can create this new variable in the Data Editor if you would like to work along. (See [GSW] 6 Us-
ing the Data Editor for help with the Data Editor.) Though the definitions of the categories “0” and
“1” are clear in this context, it still would be worthwhile to give the values explicit labels because it will
make output clear to people who are not so familiar with antique automobiles. This is done with a value
label.
We saw an example of creating and attaching a value label by using the point-and-click interface
available in the Data Editor in Changing data in [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor. Here we will do it
directly from the Command window.
 
. label define origin 0 "Domestic" 1 "Foreign"
. label values foreign origin
. describe
Contains data from afewcars2.dta
Observations: 7 A few 1978 cars
Variables: 6 20 Nov 2024 06:28

Variable Storage Display Value

name type format label Variable label

make str18 %18s Make and model

price float %9.0g Price (USD)
mpg float %9.0g Mileage (miles per gallon)
weight float %9.0g Vehicle weight (lbs.)
gear_ratio float %9.0g Gear ratio
foreign byte %8.0g origin

Sorted by:
Note: Dataset has changed since last saved.
. save afewcarslab
file afewcarslab.dta saved
 
 [ GSW ] 9 Labeling data 82

From this example, we can see that a value label is defined via
label define labelname # ”contents” # ”contents” . . .
It can then be attached to a variable via
label values variablename labelname
Once again, we need to save the dataset to be sure that we do not mistakenly lose the labels later. We
saved this under a new filename because we have cleaned it up, and we would like to use it in the next
chapter.
If you had wanted to define the value labels by using a point-and-click interface, you could do this with
the Properties window in either the Main window or the Data Editor or by using the Variables Manager.
See [GSW] 7 Using the Variables Manager for more information.
There is more to value labels than what was covered here; see [U] 12.6.3 Value labels for a complete
treatment.
You may also add notes to your data and your variables. This feature was previously discussed in Re-
naming and formatting variables in [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor and Managing notes in [GSW] 7 Using
the Variables Manager. You can learn more about notes by typing help notes, or you can get the full
story in [D] notes.
10 Listing data and basic command syntax

Command syntax
This chapter gives a basic lesson on Stata’s command syntax while showing how to control the ap-
pearance of a data list.
As we have seen throughout this manual, you have a choice between using menus and dialogs and
using the Command window. Although many find the menus more natural and the Command window
baffling at first, some practice makes working with the Command window often much faster than using
menus and dialogs. The Command window can become a faster way of working because of the clean
and regular syntax of Stata commands. We will cover enough to get you started; help language has
more information and examples, and [U] 11 Language syntax has all the details.
The syntax for the list command can be seen by typing help list:
list [ varlist ] [ if ] [ in ] [ , options ]

Here is how to read this syntax:

• Anything inside square brackets is optional. For the list command,
a. varlist is optional. A varlist is a list of variable names.
b. if is optional. The if qualifier restricts the command to run only on those observations for
which the qualifier is true. We saw examples of this in [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor.
c. in is optional. The in qualifier restricts the command to run on particular observation num-
bers.
d. , and options are optional. options are separated from the rest of the command by a comma.
• Optional pieces do not preclude one another unless explicitly stated. For the list command, it is
possible to use a varlist with if and in.
• If a part of a word is underlined, the underlined part is the minimum abbreviation. Any abbreviation
at least this long is acceptable.
a. The l in list is underlined, so l, li, and lis are all equivalent to list.
• Anything not inside square brackets is required. For the list command, only the command itself
is required.
Keeping these rules in mind, let’s investigate how list behaves when called with different arguments.
We will be using the dataset afewcarslab.dta from the end of the previous chapter.

83
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 84

list with a variable list

Variable lists (or varlists) can be specified in a variety of ways, all designed to save typing and en-
courage good variable names.
• The varlist is optional for list. This means that if no variables are specified, it is equivalent to
specifying all variables. Another way to think of it is that the default behavior of the command is
to run on all variables unless restricted by a varlist.
• You can list a subset of variables explicitly, as in list make mpg price.
• There are also many shorthand notations:
m* means all variables starting with m.
price-weight means all variables from price through weight in the dataset order.
ma?e means all variables starting with ma, followed by any character, and ending in e.
• You can list a variable by using an abbreviation unique to that variable, as in list gear r~o. If
the abbreviation is not unique, Stata returns an error message.
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 85

 
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. l make mpg price

make mpg price

1. VW Rabbit 25 4697
2. Olds 98 21 8814
3. Chev. Monza . 3667
4. 22 4099
5. Datsun 510 24 5079

6. Buick Regal 20 5189

7. Datsun 810 . 8129

. list m*

make mpg

1. VW Rabbit 25
2. Olds 98 21
3. Chev. Monza .
4. 22
5. Datsun 510 24

6. Buick Regal 20
7. Datsun 810 .

. li price-weight

price mpg weight

1. 4697 25 1930
2. 8814 21 4060
3. 3667 . 2750
4. 4099 22 2930
5. 5079 24 2280

6. 5189 20 3280
7. 8129 . 2750

 
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 86

 
. list ma?e

make

1. VW Rabbit
2. Olds 98
3. Chev. Monza
4.
5. Datsun 510

6. Buick Regal
7. Datsun 810

. l gear_r~o

gear_r~o

1. 3.78
2. 2.41
3. 2.73
4. 3.58
5. 3.54

6. 2.93
7. 3.55

 

list with if
The if qualifier uses a logical expression to determine which observations to use. If the expression
is true, the observation is used in the command; otherwise, it is skipped. The operators whose results are
either true or false are

< less than

<= less than or equal
== equal
> greater than
>= greater than or equal
!= not equal
& and
| or
! not (logical negation)
() parentheses are for grouping to specify order of evaluation

In the logical expressions, & is evaluated before | (similar to multiplication before addition in arith-
metic). You can use this in your expressions, but it is often better to use parentheses to ensure that the
expressions are evaluated in the proper order. See [U] 13.2 Operators for complete details.
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 87

 
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. list if mpg > 22

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. list if (mpg > 22) & !missing(mpg)

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

. list make mpg price gear if (mpg > 22) | (price > 8000 & gear < 3.5)

make mpg price gear_r~o

1. VW Rabbit 25 4697 3.78

2. Olds 98 21 8814 2.41
3. Chev. Monza . 3667 2.73
5. Datsun 510 24 5079 3.54
7. Datsun 810 . 8129 3.55

. list make mpg if mpg <= 22 in 2/4

make mpg

2. Olds 98 21
4. 22

 

In the listings above, we see more examples of Stata treating missing numerical values as large values,
as well as the care that should be taken when the if qualifier is applied to a variable with missing values.
See [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor.
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 88

list with if, common mistakes

Here is a series of listings with common errors and their corrections. See if you can find the errors
before reading the correct entry.
 
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. list if mpg=21
=exp not allowed
r(101);
 

The error arises because “equal” is expressed by ==, not by =. Corrected, it becomes
 
. list if mpg==21

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic

 

Other common errors with logic:

 
. list if mpg==21 if weight > 4000
invalid syntax
r(198);
. list if mpg==21 and weight > 4000
invalid ’and’
r(198);
 
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 89

Joint tests are specified with &, not with the word and or multiple ifs. The if qualifier should be if
mpg==21 & weight>4000, not if mpg==21 if weight>4000. Here is its correction:
 
. list if mpg==21 & weight > 4000

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic

 

A problem with string variables:

 
. list if make==Datsun 510
Datsun not found
r(111);
 

Strings must be in double quotes, as in make==”Datsun 510”. Without the quotes, Stata thinks that
Datsun is a variable that it cannot find. Here is the correction:
 
. list if make=="Datsun 510"

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

 

Confusing value labels with strings:

 
. list if foreign=="Domestic"
type mismatch
r(109);
 

Value labels look like strings, but the underlying variable is numeric. Variable foreign takes on
values 0 and 1 but has the value label that attaches 0 to “Domestic” and 1 to “Foreign” (see [GSW] 9 La-
beling data). To see the underlying numeric values of variables with labeled values, use the label list
command (see [D] label), or investigate the variable with codebook varname. We can correct the error
here by looking for observations where foreign==0.
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 90

There is a second construction that also allows the use of the value label directly.
 
. list if foreign==0

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic

3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

. list if foreign=="Domestic":origin

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic

3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

 
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 91

list with in
The in qualifier uses a numlist to give a range of observations that should be listed. numlists have the
form of one number or first /last. Positive numbers count from the beginning of the dataset. Negative
numbers count from the end of the dataset. Here are some examples:
 
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. list in 1

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

. list in -1

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. list in 2/4

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic

3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic

. list in -3/-2

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

 
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 92

Controlling the list output

The fine control over list output is exercised by specifying one or more options. You can use
sepby() to separate observations by variable. abbreviate() specifies the minimum number of char-
acters to abbreviate a variable name in the output. divider draws a vertical line between the variables
in the list.
 
. sort foreign make
. list ma p g f, sepby(foreign)

make price gear_r~o foreign

1. 4099 3.58 Domestic

2. Buick Regal 5189 2.93 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 2.73 Domestic
4. Olds 98 8814 2.41 Domestic

5. Datsun 510 5079 3.54 Foreign

6. Datsun 810 8129 3.55 Foreign
7. VW Rabbit 4697 3.78 Foreign

. list make weight gear, abbreviate(10)

make weight gear_ratio

1. 2930 3.58
2. Buick Regal 3280 2.93
3. Chev. Monza 2750 2.73
4. Olds 98 4060 2.41
5. Datsun 510 2280 3.54

6. Datsun 810 2750 3.55

7. VW Rabbit 1930 3.78

. list, divider

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic

2. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

7. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

 
 [ GSW ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 93

The separator() option draws a horizontal line at specified intervals. When not specified, it defaults
to a value of 5.
 
. list, separator(3)

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic

2. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic

4. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic

5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign
6. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

7. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

 

Break
If you want to interrupt a Stata command, click on the Break button, .
It is always safe to click on the Break button. After you click on Break, the state of the system is the
same as if you had never issued the original command.
11 Creating new variables

generate and replace

This chapter shows the basics of creating and modifying variables in Stata. We saw how to work with
the Data Editor in [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor—this chapter shows how we would do this from the
Command window. The two primary commands used for this are
• generate for creating new variables. It has a minimum abbreviation of g.
• replace for replacing the values of an existing variable. It may not be abbreviated because it
alters existing data and hence can be considered dangerous.
The most basic form for creating new variables is generate newvar = exp, where exp is any kind of
expression. Of course, both generate and replace can be used with if and in qualifiers. An expres-
sion is a formula made up of constants, existing variables, operators, and functions. Some examples of
expressions (using variables from auto.dta) would be 2 + price, weight^2 or sqrt(gear ratio).
The operators defined in Stata are given in the table below:

Relational
Arithmetic Logical (numeric and string)
+ addition ! not > greater than
- subtraction | or < less than
* multiplication & and >= > or equal
/ division <= < or equal
^ power == equal
!= not equal
+ string concatenation

Stata has many mathematical, statistical, string, date, time-series, and programming functions. See
help functions for the basics, and see the Stata Functions Reference Manual for a complete list and
full details of all the built-in functions.
You can use menus and dialogs to create new variables and modify existing variables by selecting
menu items from the Data > Create or change data menu. This feature can be handy for finding
functions quickly. However, we will use the Command window for the examples in this chapter because
we would like to illustrate simple usage and some pitfalls.
Stata has some utility commands for creating new variables:
• The egen command is useful for working across groups of variables or within groups of observa-
tions. See [D] egen for more information.
• The encode command turns categorical string variables into encoded numeric variables, while its
counterpart decode reverses this operation. See [D] encode for more information.
• The destring command turns string variables that should be numeric, such as numbers with
currency symbols, into numbers. To go from numbers to strings, the tostring command is useful.
See [D] destring for more information.
We will focus our efforts on generate and replace.

94
 [ GSW ] 11 Creating new variables 95

generate
There are some details you should know about the generate command:
• The basic form of the generate command is generate newvar = exp, where newvar is a new
variable name and exp is any valid expression. You will get an error message if you try to generate
a variable that already exists.
• An algebraic calculation using a missing value yields a missing value, as does division by zero,
the square root of a negative number, or any other computation which is impossible.
• If missing values are generated, the number of missing values in newvar is always reported. If
Stata says nothing about missing values, then no missing values were generated.
• You can use generate to set the storage type of the new variable as it is generated. You might
want to create an indicator (0/1) variable as a byte, for example, because it saves 3 bytes per
observation over using the default storage type of float.
Below are some examples of creating new variables from the afewcarslab dataset, which we cre-
ated in Labeling values of variables in [GSW] 9 Labeling data. (To work along, start by opening the
automobile dataset with sysuse auto. We are using a smaller dataset to make shorter listings.) The
last example shows a way to generate an indicator variable for cars weighing more than 3,000 pounds.
Logical expressions in Stata result in 1 for “true” and 0 for “false”. The if qualifier is used to ensure
that the computations are done only for observations where weight is not missing.
 [ GSW ] 11 Creating new variables 96

 
. use afewcarslab
(A few 1978 cars)
. list make mpg weight

make mpg weight

1. VW Rabbit 25 1930
2. Olds 98 21 4060
3. Chev. Monza . 2750
4. 22 2930
5. Datsun 510 24 2280

6. Buick Regal 20 3280

7. Datsun 810 . 2750

. * changing MPG to liters per 100km

. generate lphk = 3.7854 * (100 / 1.6093) / mpg
(2 missing values generated)
. label var lphk "Liters per 100km"
. * getting logarithms of price
. g lnprice = ln(price)
. * making an indicator of hugeness
. gen byte huge = weight >= 3000 if !missing(weight)
. l make mpg weight lphk lnprice huge

make mpg weight lphk lnprice huge

1. VW Rabbit 25 1930 9.408812 8.454679 0

2. Olds 98 21 4060 11.20097 9.084097 1
3. Chev. Monza . 2750 . 8.207129 0
4. 22 2930 10.69183 8.318499 0
5. Datsun 510 24 2280 9.800845 8.532869 0

6. Buick Regal 20 3280 11.76101 8.554296 1

7. Datsun 810 . 2750 . 9.003193 0

 
 [ GSW ] 11 Creating new variables 97

replace
Whereas generate is used to create new variables, replace is the command used for existing vari-
ables. Stata uses two different commands to prevent you from accidentally modifying your data. The
replace command cannot be abbreviated. Stata generally requires you to spell out completely any com-
mand that can alter your existing data.
 
. list make weight

make weight

1. VW Rabbit 1930
2. Olds 98 4060
3. Chev. Monza 2750
4. 2930
5. Datsun 510 2280

6. Buick Regal 3280

7. Datsun 810 2750

. * will give an error because weight already exists

. gen weight = weight/1000
variable weight already defined
r(110);
. * will replace weight in lbs by weight in 1000s of lbs
. replace weight = weight/1000
(7 real changes made)
. list make weight

make weight

1. VW Rabbit 1.93
2. Olds 98 4.06
3. Chev. Monza 2.75
4. 2.93
5. Datsun 510 2.28

6. Buick Regal 3.28

7. Datsun 810 2.75

 

Suppose that you want to create a new variable, predprice, which will be the predicted price of the
cars in the following year. You estimate that domestic cars will increase in price by 5% and foreign cars,
by 10%.
 [ GSW ] 11 Creating new variables 98

One way to create the variable would be to first use generate to compute the predicted domestic car
prices. Then use replace to change the missing values for the foreign cars to their proper values.
 
. gen predprice = 1.05*price if foreign==0
(3 missing values generated)
. replace predprice = 1.10*price if foreign==1
(3 real changes made)
. list make foreign price predprice, nolabel

make foreign price predpr~e

1. VW Rabbit 1 4697 5166.7

2. Olds 98 0 8814 9254.7
3. Chev. Monza 0 3667 3850.35
4. 0 4099 4303.95
5. Datsun 510 1 5079 5586.9

6. Buick Regal 0 5189 5448.45

7. Datsun 810 1 8129 8941.9

 

Of course, because foreign is an indicator variable, we could generate the predicted variable with
one command:
 
. gen predprice2 = (1.05 + 0.05*foreign)*price
. list make foreign price predprice predprice2, nolabel

make foreign price predpr~e predpr~2

1. VW Rabbit 1 4697 5166.7 5166.7

2. Olds 98 0 8814 9254.7 9254.7
3. Chev. Monza 0 3667 3850.35 3850.35
4. 0 4099 4303.95 4303.95
5. Datsun 510 1 5079 5586.9 5586.9

6. Buick Regal 0 5189 5448.45 5448.45

7. Datsun 810 1 8129 8941.9 8941.9

 
 [ GSW ] 11 Creating new variables 99

generate with string variables

Stata is smart. When you generate a variable and the expression evaluates to a string, Stata creates a
string variable with a storage type as long as necessary, and no longer than that. where is a str1 in the
following example:
 
. list make foreign

make foreign

1. VW Rabbit Foreign
2. Olds 98 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza Domestic
4. Domestic
5. Datsun 510 Foreign

6. Buick Regal Domestic

7. Datsun 810 Foreign

. gen where = "D" if foreign=="Domestic":origin

(3 missing values generated)
. replace where = "F" if foreign=="Foreign":origin
(3 real changes made)
. list make foreign where

make foreign where

1. VW Rabbit Foreign F
2. Olds 98 Domestic D
3. Chev. Monza Domestic D
4. Domestic D
5. Datsun 510 Foreign F

6. Buick Regal Domestic D

7. Datsun 810 Foreign F

. describe where
Variable Storage Display Value
name type format label Variable label

where str1 %9s

 
 [ GSW ] 11 Creating new variables 100

Stata has some useful tools for working with string variables. Here we split the make variable into
make and model and then create a variable that has the model together with where the model was man-
ufactured:
 
. gen model = usubstr(make, ustrpos(make," ")+1,.)
(1 missing value generated)
. gen modelwhere = model + " " + where
. list make where model modelwhere

make where model modelw~e

1. VW Rabbit F Rabbit Rabbit F

2. Olds 98 D 98 98 D
3. Chev. Monza D Monza Monza D
4. D D
5. Datsun 510 F 510 510 F

6. Buick Regal D Regal Regal D

7. Datsun 810 F 810 810 F

 

There are a few things to note about how these commands work:
1. ustrpos(𝑠1 ,𝑠2 ) produces an integer equal to the first character in the string 𝑠1 at which the string
𝑠2 is found or 0 if it is not found. In this example, ustrpos(make,” ”) finds the position of the
first space in each observation of make.
2. usubstr(𝑠,𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡,𝑙𝑒𝑛) produces a string of length 𝑙𝑒𝑛 characters, beginning at character 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡
of string 𝑠. If 𝑐1 = ., the result is the string from character 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 to the end of string 𝑠.
3. Putting 1 and 2 together: usubstr(𝑠,ustrpos(𝑠,” ”)+1,.) will always give the string 𝑠 with
its first word removed. Because make contains both the make and the model of each car, and make
never contains a space in this dataset, we have found each car’s model.
4. The operator “+”, when applied to string variables, will concatenate the strings (that is, join them
together). The expression ”this” + ”that” results in the string ”thisthat”. When the variable
modelwhere was generated, a space (” ”) was added between the two strings.
5. The missing value for a string is nothing special—it is simply the empty string ””. Thus the value
of modelwhere for the car with no make or model is ” D” (note the leading space).
6. If your strings might contain Unicode characters, use the Unicode versions of the string functions,
as shown above. See [U] 12.4.2 Handling Unicode strings.
12 Deleting variables and observations

clear, drop, and keep

In this chapter, we will present the tools for paring observations and variables from a dataset. We
saw how to do this using the Data Editor in [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor; this chapter presents the
methods for doing so from the Command window.
There are three main commands for removing data and other Stata objects, such as value labels, from
memory: clear, drop, and keep. Remember that they affect only what is in memory. None of these
commands alter anything that has been saved to disk.

clear and drop all

Suppose that you are working on an analysis or a simulation and that you need to clear out Stata’s
memory so that you can impute different values or simulate a new dataset. You are not interested in
saving any of the changes you have made to the dataset in memory—you would just like to have an
empty dataset. What you do depends on how much you want to clear out: at any time, you can have
not only data but also metadata such as value labels, stored results from previous commands, and stored
matrices. The clear command will let you carefully clear out data or other objects; we are interested
only in simple usage here. For more information, see help clear and [D] clear.
If you type the command clear into the Command window, it will remove all variables and value
labels. In basic usage, this is typically enough. It has the nice property that it does not remove any stored
results, so you can load a new dataset and predict values by using stored estimation results from a model
fit on a previous dataset. See help postest and [U] 20 Estimation and postestimation commands for
more information.
If you want to be sure that everything is cleared out, use the command clear all. This command
will clear Stata’s memory of data and all auxiliary objects so that you can start with a clean slate. The
first time you use clear all while you have a graph or dialog open, you may be surprised when that
graph or dialog closes; this is necessary so that Stata can free all memory being used.
If you want to get rid of just the data and nothing else, you can use the command drop all.

drop
The drop command is used to remove variables or observations from the dataset in memory.
• If you want to drop variables, use drop varlist.
• If you want to drop observations, use drop with an if or an in qualifier or both.

101
 [ GSW ] 12 Deleting variables and observations 102

We will use the afewcarslab dataset to illustrate drop:

 
. use afewcarslab
(A few 1978 cars)
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. drop in 1/3
(3 observations deleted)
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic

2. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign
3. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic
4. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. drop if mpg > 21

(3 observations deleted)
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

. drop gear_ratio
. list

make price mpg weight foreign

1. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 Domestic

. drop m*
. list

price weight foreign

1. 5189 3280 Domestic

 

These changes are only to the data in memory. If you want to make the changes permanent, you need
to save the dataset.
 [ GSW ] 12 Deleting variables and observations 103

keep
keep tells Stata to drop all variables except those specified explicitly or through the use of an if or
in expression. Just like drop, keep can be used with varlist or with qualifiers but not with both at once.
We use a clear command at the start of this example so that we can reload the afewcarslab dataset:
 
. clear
. use afewcarslab
(A few 1978 cars)
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. VW Rabbit 4697 25 1930 3.78 Foreign

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 Domestic
3. Chev. Monza 3667 . 2750 2.73 Domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign

6. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. keep in 4/7
(3 observations deleted)
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. 4099 22 2930 3.58 Domestic

2. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 Foreign
3. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic
4. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 Foreign

. keep if mpg <= 21

(3 observations deleted)
. list

make price mpg weight gear_r~o foreign

1. Buick Regal 5189 20 3280 2.93 Domestic

. keep m*
. list

make mpg

1. Buick Regal 20

 
13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata

The Do-file Editor

Stata comes with an integrated text editor called the Do-file Editor, which can be used for many tasks.
It gets its name from the term do-file, which is a file containing a list of commands for Stata to run (called
a batch file or a script in other settings). See [U] 16 Do-files for more information. Although the Do-file
Editor has advanced features that can help in writing such files, it can also be used to build up a series of
commands that can then be submitted to Stata all at once. This feature can be handy when writing a loop
to process multiple variables in a similar fashion or when doing complex, repetitive tasks interactively.
To get the most from this chapter, you should work through it at your computer. Start by opening
the Do-file Editor, either by clicking on the Do-file Editor button, , or by typing doedit in the
Command window and pressing Enter.

The Do-file Editor toolbar

The Do-file Editor has 15 buttons. Many of the buttons share a similar purpose with their look-alikes
in the main Stata toolbar.

If you ever forget what a button does, hover the mouse pointer over a button, and a tooltip will appear.

New: Open a new do-file in a new tab in the Do-file Editor.

Open: Open a do-file from disk in a new tab in the Do-file Editor.

Save: Save the current file to disk.

Print: Print the contents of the Do-file Editor.

Find: Open the Find dialog for finding text.

Cut: Cut the selected text and put it in the Clipboard.

Copy: Copy the selected text to the Clipboard.

Paste: Paste the text from the Clipboard into the current document.

Undo: Undo the last change.

Redo: Undo the last undo.

104
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 105

Toggle bookmark: Turn on or off the bookmark on the current line. Bookmarks are a
way to move quickly within the do-file. They are quite useful in long do-files or when
debugging.

Previous bookmark: Go to the previous bookmark (if any).

Next bookmark: Go to the next bookmark (if any).

Show file in Viewer: Show the contents of the do-file in a Viewer window. This is worth-
while when editing files that contain SMCL tags, such as log files or help files.
Execute (do): Run the commands in the do-file, showing all commands and their output.
If text is highlighted, the button becomes the Execute selection (do) button and will run
only the selected lines, showing all output. We will refer to this as the Do button.

Using the Do-file Editor

Suppose that we would like to analyze fuel usage for 1978 automobiles in a manner similar to what we
did in [GSW] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session. We know that we will be issuing many commands
to Stata during our analysis and that we want to be able to reproduce our work later without having to
type each command again.
We can do this easily in Stata: simply save a text file containing the commands. When that is done,
we can tell Stata to run the file and execute each command in sequence. Such a file is known as a Stata
do-file; see [U] 16 Do-files.
To analyze fuel usage of 1978 automobiles, we would like to create a new variable containing gallons
per mile. We would like to see how that variable changes in relation to vehicle weight for both domestic
and imported cars. Performing a regression with our new variable would be a good first step.
To get started, click on the Do-file Editor button to open the Do-file Editor. After the Do-file Editor
opens, type the commands below into the Do-file Editor. Purposely misspell the name of the foreign
variable on the fifth line. (We are intentionally making some common mistakes and then pointing you to
the solutions. This will save you time later.)
* an example do-file
sysuse auto
generate gp100m = 100/mpg
label var gp100m ”Gallons per 100 miles”
regress gp100m weight foreing
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 106

Here is what your Do-file Editor should look like now:

You will notice that the color of the text changes as you type. The different colors are examples of the
Do-file Editor’s syntax highlighting. The colors and text properties of the syntax elements can be changed
by selecting Edit > Preferences... from the Do-file Editor menu bar and then clicking on the Colors tab
in the resulting window. You can also define your own list of keywords for syntax highlighting.
Syntax highlighting extends beyond highlighting Stata commands. You can switch the syntax high-
lighting from Stata by going to the Language menu and choosing the language you would like. The
Language menu includes a selection for Markdown because Stata can process Markdown to create dy-
namic documents. See [RPT] dyndoc for more information. This menu also contains selections for
Python and Java because Stata has both Python integration and Java integration. See [P] PyStata inte-
gration and [P] Java integration for more information. Stata will default to the proper language based
on the extension of the file you are editing, but if the file has not been saved yet, you will need to tell it
what language to choose.
Also note that if you pause briefly as you type, the Do-file Editor will allow autocompletion of com-
mand names and words that are already in the do-file and, in StataNow, autocompletion of variable
names, macros, and stored results. Once the suggestions appear, more typing will narrow down the pos-
sibilities. You can navigate the suggestions using the up- and down-arrow keys or keep typing to narrow
them to a single word. Once you have the word you like, pressing Enter will place the word in your
do-file.
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 107

Click on the Do button, , to execute the commands. Stata executes the commands in sequence,
and the results appear in the Results window:
 
. do C:\Users\Stata\AppData\Local\Temp\STD08000000.tmp
. * an example do-file
. sysuse auto
(1978 automobile data)
. generate gp100m = 100/mpg
. label var gp100m "Gallons per 100 miles"
. regress gp100m weight foreing
variable foreing not found
r(111);
.
end of do-file
 

The do ”C:\ . . .” command is how Stata executes the commands in the Do-file Editor. Stata saves
the commands from a do-file with unsaved changes to a temporary file and issues the do command to
execute them. Everything worked as planned until Stata saw the misspelled variable. The first three
commands were executed, but an error was produced on the fourth. Stata does not know of a variable
named foreing. We need to go back to the Do-file Editor and change the misspelled variable name to
foreign in the last line:

Click on the Do button again. Alas, Stata now fails on the first line—it will not overwrite the dataset
in memory that we changed.
 
. do C:\Users\Stata\AppData\Local\Temp\STD08000000.tmp
. * an example do-file
. sysuse auto
no; dataset in memory has changed since last saved
r(4);
.
end of do-file
 
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 108

We now have a choice for what we should do:

• We can put a clear command in our do-file as the very first command. This automatically clears
out Stata’s memory before the do-file tries to load auto.dta. This is convenient but dangerous
because it defeats Stata’s protection against throwing away changes without warning.
• We can type a clear command in the Command window to manually clear the dataset and then
process the do-file again. This process can be aggravating when building a complicated do-file.
Here is some advice: Automatically clear Stata’s memory while debugging the do-file. Once the do-file
is in its final form, decide the context in which it will be used. If it will be used in a highly automated
environment (such as when certifying), the do-file should still automatically clear Stata’s memory. If it
will be used rarely, do not clear Stata’s memory. This decision will save much heartache.
We will add a clear option to the sysuse command to automatically clear the dataset in Stata’s
memory before the do-file runs:
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 109

The do-file now runs well, as clicking on the Do button shows:

 
. do C:\Users\Stata\AppData\Local\Temp\STD08000000.tmp
. * an example do-file
. sysuse auto, clear
(1978 automobile data)
. generate gp100m = 100/mpg
. label var gp100m "Gallons per 100 miles"
. regress gp100m weight foreign
Source SS df MS Number of obs = 74
F( 2, 71) = 113.97
Model 91.1761694 2 45.5880847 Prob > F = 0.0000
Residual 28.4000913 71 .400001287 R-squared = 0.7625
Adj R-squared = 0.7558
Total 119.576261 73 1.63803097 Root MSE = .63246

p100m Coefficient Std. err. t P>|t| [95% conf. interval]

weight .0016254 .0001183 13.74 0.000 .0013896 .0018612

foreign .6220535 .1997381 3.11 0.003 .2237871 1.02032
_cons -.0734839 .4019932 -0.18 0.855 -.8750354 .7280677

.
end of do-file
 

You might want to select File > Save as... to save this do-file from the Do-file Editor. Later, you could
select File > Open to open it and then add more commands as you move forward with your analysis. By
saving the commands of your analysis in a do-file as you go, you do not have to worry about retyping
them with each new Stata session. Think hard about removing the clear option from the first command.
After you have saved your do-file, you can execute the commands it contains by typing do filename,
where the filename is the name of your do-file.

The File menu

The File menu of the Do-file Editor includes standard features found in most text editors. You may
choose any of these menu items: create a New > Do-file, Open an existing file, Save the current file,
save the current file under a new name with Save as..., or Print the current file. There are also buttons
on the Do-file Editor’s toolbar that correspond to these features. After you select New > Do-file, the
Do-file Editor will create an empty document within a new tab in the current Do-file Editor window. If
you would like to create a new Do-file Editor window, select New > Window.
In StataNow, you can create new documents in the Do-file Editor from Stata templates and from
user-defined templates using the New > Document from template menu. Selecting an item from the
templates menu will open an editor and set the contents of the editor to the contents of the template. You
can define your own templates by first creating the document templates directory in your PERSONAL
directory (see [P] sysdir) and then by saving template files into that directory. A template file must be a
plain-text file and can be do-files, ado-files, Python files, or any other text files you like. Stata will scan
the files in that directory and add each filename that contains a file extension to the templates menu.
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 110

Finally, you can create a New > Project... to keep track of collections of files used in a project. These
can be do-files, data files, graph files, or any other files you like. For more information on the Project
Manager, see [P] Project Manager.

The Edit menu

The Edit menu of the Do-file Editor includes the standard Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete,
and Find capabilities. There are also buttons on the Do-file Editor’s toolbar for easy access to these
capabilities. There are several other Edit menu features that you might find useful:
• You can select Insert file... to insert the contents of another file at the current cursor position in
the Do-file Editor.
• You can select the current line with Select line.
• You can delete the current line with Delete line.
• Find > Go to line... will allow you to jump to a specific line number. The line numbers are
displayed at the left and the lower-right of the Do-file Editor window.
• Advanced leads to a submenu with some programmer’s friends:
– Shift right indents the selection by one tab.
– Shift left unindents the selection by one tab.
– Re-indent indents the selection according to its nesting within blocks and programs.
– Toggle comment toggles //-style comments at the start of the selected lines.
– Add block comment puts a /* before and a */ after the selected region, commenting it out.
– Remove block comment undoes the above.
– Make selection uppercase converts the selection to all capital letters.
– Make selection lowercase converts the selection to all lowercase letters.
– Complete word attempts to complete the current word based on words that are already in
the do-file. If there are multiple possibilities, all will be shown. You can either pick the
completion you would like or keep typing to narrow the choices.
– Convert to UTF-8... converts the current file to UTF-8 encoding.
– Convert line endings to macOS/Unix format (\n) converts the line endings for the current
file to macOS/Unix format.
– Convert line endings to Windows format (\r\n) converts the line endings for the current
file to Windows format.
– Convert tabs to spaces replaces any tab characters with spaces, leaving the spacing as it
currently appears.
– Convert leading spaces to tabs converts any spaces at the start of lines to tab characters.
The number of spaces per tab is determined by a preference setting.
– Convert all spaces to tabs converts spaces to tab characters wherever possible. The number
of spaces per tab is determined by a preference setting.
– Convert Unicode spaces and curly quotes to ASCII converts spaces and curly quotes in
Unicode to ASCII encoding.
Matching and balancing of parentheses ( ), braces { }, and brackets [ ] are also available from the
Edit menu. When you select Edit > Find > Match brace, the Do-file Editor looks at the character
immediately to the left and right of the cursor. If either is one of the characters that the editor can match,
the editor will find the matching character and place the cursor immediately in front of it. If there is no
match, the cursor will not move.
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 111

When you select Edit > Find > Balance braces, the Do-file Editor looks to the left and right of the
current cursor position or selection and creates a selection that includes the narrowest level of matching
braces. If you select Balance braces again, the editor will expand the selection to include the next level
of matching braces. If there is no match, the cursor will not move. Balancing braces is useful for working
with blocks of code defined by loops or if commands. See [P] foreach, [P] forvalues, [P] while, and
[P] if for more information.
Balance braces is easier to explain with an example. Type {now {is the} time} in the Do-file
Editor. Place the cursor between the words is and the. Select Edit > Find > Balance braces. The
Do-file Editor will select {is the}. If you select Balance braces again, the Do-file Editor will select
{now {is the} time}.
Text in Stata strings can include Unicode characters and is encoded as UTF-8 (see [U] 12.4.2 Handling
Unicode strings). However, you may have do-files, ado-files, or other text files that you used with
Stata 13 or earlier, and those files contain characters other than plain ASCII such as accented characters,
Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (CJK) characters, Cyrillic characters, and the like. If you open a file that is
not encoded in UTF-8, Stata prompts you to specify the encoding for the file so that it can convert the file
to UTF-8. If you cancel the conversion or choose the wrong encoding, you can try the conversion again
later using Convert to UTF-8. The conversion to UTF-8 can be undone by using Edit > Undo and is not
permanent until you save the do-file. For Stata datasets with characters not encoded in UTF-8 or for bulk
conversion of multiple Stata files, you should use the unicode translate command.
Editing tip: You can click on the left margin near a line number to select the entire line and the end-
of-line characters. Doing so makes it easy to delete lines or cut lines and paste them elsewhere. You can
click and drag within the line-number column to select a range of complete lines.

The View menu

The View menu of the Do-File Editor allows you to zoom in and out or display special characters
such as tabs and line endings.

The Tools menu

You have already learned about the Do button. Selecting Tools > Execute (do) is equivalent to clicking
on the Execute (do) button.
Selecting Tools > Execute (do) from top will send all the commands from the first line to the current
line to the Command window. This method is a quick way to run a part of a do-file.
Selecting Tools > Execute (do) to bottom will send all the commands from the current line through
the end of the contents of the Do-file Editor to the Command window. This method is a quick way to
run a part of a do-file.
Selecting Tools > Execute (do) line will send all the commands from the current line to the Command
window. The cursor will then automatically advance to the next executable line, bypassing empty lines
and comments. This method is an easy way to run a do-file line by line.
Selecting Tools > Execute quietly (run) is equivalent to Tools > Execute (do) but the commands
will be executed quietly; that is, no output will be displayed in the Command window.
Selecting Tools > Execute (include) is similar to clicking on the Execute (do) button with one major
difference: local macros defined in the current session can be expanded in the commands being executed.
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 112

Do is equivalent to Stata’s do command, whereas Execute (include) is equivalent to Stata’s include

command. See [U] 16 Do-files for a complete discussion.
You can also preview files in the Viewer by selecting Tools > Show file in Viewer or by clicking
on the Show file in Viewer button, . This feature is useful when working with files that use Stata’s
SMCL tags, such as when writing help files or editing log files.

Saving interactive commands from Stata as a do-file

While working interactively with Stata, you might decide that you would like to rerun the last several
commands that you typed interactively. From the History window, you can send highlighted commands
or even the entire contents to the Do-file Editor. You can also save commands as a do-file and open that
file in the Do-file Editor. You can copy a command from a dialog (rather than submit it) and paste it into
the Do-file Editor. See [GSW] 6 Using the Data Editor for details. Also see [R] log for information on
the cmdlog command, which allows you to log all commands that you type in Stata to a do-file.

Navigating your do-file

When you work with long files, bookmarks allow you to easily navigate through your do-file. By
placing a bookmark before important sections in your do-file, you can return to those sections more
easily later. The Do-file Editor supports two different types of bookmarks: permanent and temporary.
Permanent bookmarks are saved with a do-file and reappear when the do-file is opened in the Do-file
Editor. Temporary bookmarks are lost when a do-file is closed. Bookmarks are displayed as icons in the
bookmark margin next to the line number in the Do-file Editor. Permanent bookmarks are indicated with
a vertical bookmark icon, while temporary bookmarks are indicated with a horizontal bookmark icon.
To add or remove a permanent bookmark, use Edit > Toggle bookmark, or click in the bookmark
margin next to the line number. You can also add a permanent bookmark by manually typing a line
beginning with a special comment, //#. All other text on the rest of the line is treated as the title of
the bookmark. You cannot have ado-code on the same line as the bookmark comment, or the bookmark
comment will be ignored. You can also add a bookmark with the special comment **#. However, the
bookmark comment //# may be preferable to use because it’s also valid for both Mata and Java. Perma-
nent bookmarks can also be removed by simply deleting the line containing the bookmark. Permanent
bookmarks cannot be added within multiline comments or multiline commands, nor can they be added
using the Toggle bookmark menu item when there’s a selection.
To add or remove a temporary bookmark in StataNow, use Edit > Toggle temporary bookmark, or
click in the bookmark margin while pressing the Alt key. Temporary bookmarks can also be removed by
simply deleting the line containing the bookmark. Temporary bookmarks can be added to any line that
doesn’t already contain a permanent bookmark.
You can move between bookmarks using the Next bookmark and Previous bookmark menu items
in the Edit menu. You can also move between permanent bookmarks using the Navigation Control. The
Navigation Control of the Do-file Editor allows you to move between permanent bookmarks, as well as
programs and Java and Python code blocks that you have defined in your do-file. When you select a
program or a permanent bookmark from the Navigation Control, you will jump directly to the position
of that program or bookmark in your do-file.
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 113

You can increase the level of indentation for a permanent bookmark’s label in the Navigation Control
by adding # to the bookmark comment. For example, bookmark comment //## Bookmark 2 will be
indented one level more than bookmark comment //# Bookmark 1.
To delete all permanent and temporary bookmarks, use Edit > Delete all bookmarks....This will
remove all permanent bookmark lines, as well as remove all permanent and temporary bookmark icons
from the bookmark margin.

Projects
For advanced users managing many files as part of a project, Stata has a Project Manager that uses
the Do-file Editor. For more information on the Project Manager, see [P] Project Manager.

Auto backup
The Do-file Editor now creates a backup file whenever it opens a document or creates a new one.
When an existing document is opened, Stata creates a backup file of a document that is saved to disk
in the same directory using the existing document’s filename prefixed with ~ and with the extension
.stswp. When you edit a new and unsaved document, it saves the backup file to the temp directory.
When a document is closed, the backup file is deleted. However, if Stata does not exit cleanly because
of a power outage or a computer crash, the backup file is left behind.
By default, Stata periodically backs up the document every 4 seconds if an edit has been made or
after an addition or a deletion of 200 characters or more. The time interval can be changed in the Do-file
Editor’s advanced settings, and the backup feature can also be turned off.
 [ GSW ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 114

When you attempt to open a document in the Do-file Editor, it first checks for the existence of a
backup file. If a backup file is found, the Do-file Editor prompts you that a backup file exists and asks if
you want to recover the backup file, open the original document, or cancel. We will discuss the options
in reverse order. Choosing to cancel will cancel opening the document and leave the backup file on disk.
If you choose to open the original document, the original document is opened in the Do-file Editor, and
the backup file is deleted from disk. If you choose to recover the backup file, the backup file is opened as
a new and unsaved document in the Do-file Editor with its default filename set to the original filename
and the string Recovered appended to the filename. The backup file is deleted from disk. You can keep
the recovered document by saving it to disk either as a new file or by overwriting the original document,
or you can disregard the changes by closing the document without saving it.

Adding user-defined keywords for syntax highlighting

You can create a text file containing keywords that Stata will use for syntax highlighting. The text
file must be named stata-userkeywords.txt and contain a list of keywords that can be separated by any
combination of spaces or tabs and can be placed on separate lines. Keywords must follow Stata’s rules for
valid command names. Comments are not supported. Any keywords that are invalid command names
are ignored. There are no limits on the number of keywords you can define. However, you must be
mindful of the fact that Stata has to search across all keywords when syntax-highlighting a document,
so a very large dictionary of keywords can affect performance in the Do-file Editor. Stata maintains a
dictionary of unique keywords, so repeated instances of a keyword are ignored.
Stata searches for both a global keywords file and a local keywords file; if both files exist, then their
dictionaries of keywords are merged. The global keywords file must be saved in the Stata directory. This
allows the global keywords file to be shared with multiple users without requiring each user to have a
copy. You can also create your own local keywords file, which must be saved to your home directory.
Stata reads the keywords files when it launches. Changes to the keywords files while Stata is running
require Stata to be restarted to take effect.
14 Graphing data

Working with graphs

Stata has a rich system for graphical representation of data. The main command for creating graphs is
unsurprisingly named graph. Behind this plain name is a wealth of tools. In this chapter, we will make
one simple graph to point out the basics of the Graph window. See the [G] Stata Graphics Reference
Manual for more information about all aspects of working with graphs.

A simple graph example

In the sample session of [GSW] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session, we made a scatterplot, added
a fitted regression line, and made a grid of scatterplots to allow comparisons across groups. Here, using
the automobile dataset, we make a simple box plot that shows the displacements of the cars’ engines and
how they compare across repair records within the place of manufacture of the cars. Start by loading the
dataset by typing sysuse auto in the Command window and pressing Enter.
We select Graphics > Box plot, choose or type displacement in the Variables field on the Main
tab, click on the Categories tab, check the Group 1 checkbox and enter rep78 for the first grouping
variable, and check the Group 2 checkbox and enter foreign for the second grouping variable. Finally,
we click on the Submit button so that we could easily make changes to the graph if need be. After we
look at the graph, we realize that we forgot the title. We close the Graph window, click on the Titles tab
of the graph box dialog, type the title Displacement across repairs within origin, and click on
the Submit button again.
The Graph window comes up, showing us our nicely titled graph:

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 [ GSW ] 14 Graphing data 116

Graph window
When the Graph window comes up, it shows our graph in a window with a toolbar. The first four
buttons are familiar to us from other Stata windows: Open, Save, Print, and Copy. The next two buttons
are new:
Rename graph: This button allows the graph to be renamed. Why would you do this? If
you would like to have multiple graphs open at once, the graphs need to be named. So you
can click on the Rename graph button to give a graph a name. This graph will then remain
open when you create your next graph.
Graph Editor: Stata has a Graph Editor that allows you to manipulate and edit your graph.
This feature will be introduced in the next chapter.
The inactive buttons to the right of the Graph Editor button are used by the Graph Editor, so their
meanings will become clear in the next chapter.
We decide that we like this graph and would like to save it. We can save it either by clicking on the
Save button and choosing a name and a location or by right-clicking on the Graph window itself and
selecting Save as....

Saving and printing graphs

You can save a graph once it is displayed by right-clicking on its window and selecting Save as....
You can print a graph by right-clicking on its window and selecting Print.... You can also use the File
menu to save or print a graph. We recommend that you always right-click on a graph to save or print it
to ensure that the correct graph is selected.

Right-clicking on the Graph window

Right-clicking on the Graph window displays a menu from which you can select the following:
• Save as... to save the graph to disk.
• Copy to copy the graph to the Clipboard.
• Start Graph Editor to start the Graph Editor.
• Preferences... to edit the preferences for graphs.
• Print... to print the graph.

The Graph button

The Graph button, , is located on the main window’s toolbar. The button has two parts, an icon
and an arrow. Clicking on the icon brings the topmost Graph window to the front of all other windows.
Clicking on the arrow displays a menu of open graphs. Selecting a graph from the menu brings that graph
to the front of all other windows. If you close the Graph window, you can reopen it only by reissuing a
Stata command that draws a new graph.
15 Editing graphs

The Graph Editor

With Stata’s Graph Editor, you can change almost anything on your graph; you can add text, lines,
arrows, and markers wherever you like.
We will first make a graph to edit and will then point out the tools in the Graph Editor. Start by opening
the automobile dataset: sysuse auto. Here is the command that we will use to make the graph:
 
. scatter mpg weight, name(mygraph) title(Mileage vs. vehicle weight)
 

Start the Editor by right-clicking on your graph and selecting Start Graph Editor. Click once on the
title of the graph. Here is a picture of the Graph Editor with its elements labeled.
Main menu Standard toolbar Contextual toolbar Selected object

Tools toolbar Graph Object browser

Select any of the tools along the left of the Graph Editor window to edit the graph. The Pointer (Select
tool), , is selected by default.
You can change the properties of objects or drag them to new locations by using the Pointer. As
you select objects with the Pointer, a Contextual Toolbar will appear just above the graph. In the above
example, the title of the graph is selected, so the Contextual Toolbar has controls that are relevant for
editing titles. You can use any of the controls on the Contextual Toolbar to immediately change the
most important properties of the selected object. Right-click on an object to access more properties and
operations. Hold the Shift key when dragging objects to constrain the movement to horizontal or vertical
directions.

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 [ GSW ] 15 Editing graphs 118

Add text, lines, or markers (with optional labels) to your graph by using the three Add... tools— ,
, and . Lines can be changed to arrows by using the Contextual Toolbar. If you do not like the
default properties, simply change their settings in the Contextual Toolbar before adding the text, line, or
marker. The new settings will then be applied to all added objects, even in future Stata sessions.
Do not be afraid to try things. If you do not like a result, change it back by using the same tool or by
clicking on the Undo button, , in the Standard Toolbar for the Graph Editor (below the main menu).
Edit > Undo in the main menu does the same thing.
Remember to reselect the Pointer tool when you want to drag objects or change their properties.
You can move objects on the graph and have the rest of the objects adjust their position to accommo-
date the move with the Grid edit tool, . With this tool, you are repositioning objects in the underlying
grid that holds the objects in the graph. Some graphs, for example, by graphs, are composed of nested
grids. You can reposition objects only within the grid that contains them; they cannot be moved to other
grids.
You can also select objects in the Object Browser along the right of the graph. This window shows
a hierarchical listing of the objects in the graph. Clicking or right-clicking on an object in the Object
Browser is the same as clicking or right-clicking on the object in the graph.
The Graph Editor has the ability to record your actions and play them back on later graphs. When you
click on the Start recording button, , every editing action you take, including undos and redos, is
recorded. If you would like to do some editing that is not recorded, you can click on the Pause recording
button, . You can click on the Pause recording button again to resume recording. When you are done
with your recording, click on the Start recording button. You will be prompted to save your recording.
Any recording you save is available from the Play recording button, , and may be applied to future
graphs. You can even play a recording in any Stata graph command by using the play option. See
Graph Recorder in [G-1] Graph Editor for more information.
Stop the editor by selecting File > Stop Graph Editor from the main menu or by clicking on the
Graph Editor button. When you stop the Graph Editor, you will be prompted to save your graph if you
have made any changes. If you do not save your graph, your changes will not be lost, but you will risk
losing them if you create a new graph in the same Graph window. You must stop the Editor if you would
like to work on other tasks in Stata.
Here are a few of the things that you can do with the Editor:
• Add annotations using lines, arrows, and text.
• Add or remove grid lines or reference lines.
• Add or modify titles, captions, and notes.
• Change scatterplots to line plots, connected plots, areas, bars, spikes, or drop lines—and, of course,
vice versa.
• Change the size, color, margin, and other properties of your graph’s titles (or any other text on the
graph).
• Move your legend to another side of the graph, or even place it in the plot region.
• Change the aspect ratio of your graph.
• Stack the bars on a bar graph or turn them into percentages.
• Rotate or change the angle of axis labels.
• Add custom ticks and labels to the axes.
 [ GSW ] 15 Editing graphs 119

• Change the rule for the number and spacing of ticks and labels on an axis.
• Emphasize a point on the graph, whether marker, bar, spike, or other plot, by making it a custom
color, size, or symbol.
• Change the text or properties of a marker label.
Because you can edit every property of every object on the graph, you can change almost anything
about your graph. To learn more, see [G-1] Graph Editor or type help graph editor.
16 Saving and printing results by using logs

Using logs in Stata

When you work on an analysis, it is worthwhile to behave like a bench scientist and keep a lab note-
book of your actions so that your work can be easily replicated. Everyone has a feeling of complete
omniscience while working intensely—this feeling is wonderful but fleeting. The next day, the exact
small details needed for perfect duplication have become obscure. Stata has a lab notebook at hand: the
log file.
A log file is simply a record of your Results window. It records all commands and all textual output
as it happens. Thus it keeps your lab notebook for you as you work. Because it writes the file to disk
while it writes the Results window, it also protects you from disastrous failures, be they power failures
or computer crashes. We recommend that you start a log file whenever you begin any serious work in
Stata.

Logging output
All the output that appears in the Results window can be captured in a log file. Stata can save the
file in one of two different formats. By default, Stata will save the file in its Stata Markup and Control
Language (SMCL) format, which preserves all the formatting and links from the Results window. You
can open these results in the Viewer, and they will behave as though they were in the Results window.
If you would rather have plain-text files without any formatting, you can save the file as a plain log file.
We recommend using the SMCL format because SMCL files can be translated into a variety of formats
readable by applications other than Stata with the File > Log > Translate... menu (see [R] translate).

To start a log file, click on the Log button, . This will open a standard file dialog that allows you
to specify a directory and filename for your log. If you do not specify a file extension, the extension
.smcl will be added to the filename. If you specify a file that already exists, you will be asked whether
you want to append the new log to the file or overwrite the file with the new log.

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 [ GSW ] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs 121

Here is an example of a short session:

 

name: <unnamed>
log: C:\Users\stata\Documents\Stata\base.smcl
log type: smcl
opened on: 20 Nov 2024, 06:28:20
. sysuse auto
(1978 automobile data)
. by foreign, sort: summarize price mpg

-> foreign = Domestic

Variable Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max

price 52 6072.423 3097.104 3291 15906

mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34

-> foreign = Foreign

Variable Obs Mean Std. dev. Min Max

price 22 6384.682 2621.915 3748 12990

mpg 22 24.77273 6.611187 14 41
. * be sure to include the above stats in report!
. * now for something completely different
. corr price mpg
(obs=74)
price mpg

price 1.0000
mpg -0.4686 1.0000
. log close
name: <unnamed>
log: C:\Users\stata\Documents\Stata\base.smcl
log type: smcl
closed on: 20 Nov 2024, 06:28:21

 

There are a few items of interest.

• The header showing the log file’s location, type, and starting timestamp is part of the log file. This
feature helps when working with multiple log files.
• The two lines starting with asterisks (*) are comments. Stata ignores the text following the aster-
isk, so you may type any comment you would like, with any special characters you would like.
Commenting is a good way to document your thought process and to mark sections of the log for
later use.
• In this example, the log file was closed by using the log close command. Doing so is not strictly
necessary because log files are automatically closed when you exit Stata.
Stata allows multiple log files to be open at once only if the log files are named. For details on this
topic, see help log.
 [ GSW ] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs 122

Working with logs

Log files are best viewed using Stata’s Viewer. Select File > Log > View.... If there is a log file open
(as shown by the status bar), it will be the default log file to view; otherwise, you need to either type the
name of the log file into the dialog or click on the Browse... button to find the file with a standard file
dialog.
Once you are in the Viewer window, everything behaves as expected: you can copy text and paste
between the Viewer and anything else that uses text, such as word processors or text editors. You can even
paste into the Command window or the Do-file Editor, but you should take care to copy only commands,
not their output. It is okay to copy the prompt (“.”) at the start of the echoed command because Stata
is smart enough to ignore it in the Command window. When working with a word processor, what you
paste will be unformatted text; it will look best if you use a fixed-width font, like Courier, to display it.
Viewing your current log file is a good way to keep a reminder of something you have already done
or a view of a previous result. The Viewer window takes a snapshot of your log file and hence will not
scroll as you keep working in Stata. If you need to see more recent results in the Viewer, click on the
Reload page button.
For more detailed information about logs, see [U] 15 Saving and printing output—log files and
[R] log. For more information about the Viewer, see [GSW] 3 Using the Viewer.

Printing logs
To print a standard SMCL log file, you need to have the log file open in a Viewer window. Once the
log file is in the Viewer, you can click on the Print button, right-click on the Viewer window, and select
Print..., or select File > Print.... A Print dialog will appear. After you click on Print, a Print settings
dialog will appear.
• You can fill in none of, any of, or all the items Header, Name, and Project. You can check or uncheck
options to Print line numbers, Print header, and Print logo. These items are saved and will appear
again in the print sheet Print settings (in this and in future Stata sessions).
• You can set the font, margins, and color scheme that the printer will use by clicking on Prefs... in
the Print settings dialog to open the Printer preferences dialog. Monochrome is for black-and-white
printing, Color is for default color printing, and Custom 1 and Custom 2 are for customized color
printing. You can set the font by clicking on the Font... button. The resulting Font dialog will list
only the fixed-width “typewriter” fonts (for example, Courier) available for your printer.
You could also use the translate command to generate a PostScript or PDF version of the log file.
See [R] translate for more information.
If your log file is a plain-text file (.log instead of .smcl), you can open it in a text editor, such as
Notepad, in the Do-file Editor or in your favorite word processor. You can then edit the log file—add
headings, comments, etc.—format it, and print it. If you bring the log file into a word processor, it will
be displayed and printed with its default font. The log file will not be easily readable when printed in a
proportionally spaced font (for example, Times New Roman or Georgia). It will look much better printed
in a fixed-width font (for example, Courier New).
You may wish to associate the .log extension with a text editor (such as Notepad or WordPad) in
Windows. You can then edit and print the logs from those Windows applications if you like.
 [ GSW ] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs 123

Rerunning commands as do-files

Stata also can log just the commands from a session without recording the output. This feature is a
convenient way to make a do-file interactively. Such a file is called a cmdlog file by Stata. You can start
a cmdlog file by typing
cmdlog using filename.do
and you can close the cmdlog file by typing
cmdlog close
Here, for example, is what a cmdlog of the previous session would look like. It contains only commands
and comments and hence could be used as a do-file.
 
sysuse auto
by foreign, sort: summarize price mpg
* be sure to include the above stats in report!
* now for something completely different
corr price mpg
 

If you start working and then wish you had started a cmdlog file, you can save yourself heartache
by saving the contents of the History window. The History window stores the last 5,000 commands you
have typed. Simply right-click on the History window and select Save all... from the menu. This will
work best if you first filter out all the commands that resulted in errors as was shown in The History
window in [GSW] 2 The Stata user interface. If you would like to move the commands directly to the
Do-file Editor, select Select all followed by Send selected to Do-file Editor. You may find this method
a more convenient way to create a text file containing only the commands that you typed during your
session.
See [GSW] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata, [U] 16 Do-files, and [U] 15 Saving and
printing output—log files for more information.
17 Setting font and window preferences

Changing and saving fonts and sizes and positions of your windows
You may find that you would like to change the fonts and display style of Stata’s windows, depending
on your monitor resolution and personal preferences. At the same time, there could be requirements for
font usage, say, when you submit graphs to journals. Stata accommodates both of these by allowing sets
of preferences for how windows are displayed.
We will first cover what can be changed in each window and then talk about what you can manage
with your preferences.

Graph window
The preferences for the Graph window can be changed by right-clicking on the Graph window and
choosing Preferences... from the contextual menu. The settings can then be set for how graphs are
displayed in Stata. The settings that should be used when printing can be set under the Printer tab. The
behavior of the Clipboard is controlled under the Clipboard tab.
The Graph preferences allow different schemes that control the look of graphs. These schemes provide
a quick way to optimize graphs for printing or to display on a screen. There are even schemes defined for
The Economist and the Stata Journal so that you can get the details for these publications right without
much fuss. Changing the scheme does not change the current graph—it applies the settings to future
graphs.

All other windows

You can change the display font and font size for most types of windows in Stata.
If fonts and font sizes for a window can be changed, they can be changed by right-clicking on the
window and selecting Font... from the contextual menu. Doing so will bring up the Font dialog, from
which you can pick the font and size of your choice. The font lists for each of the Results, Viewer, and
Do-file Editor windows are restricted to fixed-width fonts only. This restriction ensures that output and
numbers line up properly and are readable. The other windows can have any font that you would like
without any adverse consequences.

Changing color schemes

In addition to changing the fonts themselves, you can also change the background and foreground
colors of text being displayed. In the Do-file Editor, you can choose the colors for syntax highlighting,
allowing, say, Stata commands to be displayed in a different color from arbitrary text. You can control
the overall color scheme by selecting a scheme in the General tab of the General preferences.

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 [ GSW ] 17 Setting font and window preferences 125

The Results and Viewer windows have color schemes that control the display of input, text, results,
errors, links, and highlighted text. Each has its color scheme set in the same fashion: you can right-click
on the window and select or design your own color scheme. The default setting for both the Results
window and the Viewer is the built-in Standard scheme, which uses a white background and dark text.
There are other built-in schemes as well as slots for custom schemes. The settings for the Viewer affect
all Viewer windows at once. Choosing an overall scheme from the General tab will reset all custom
settings to the settings determined by that scheme.

Managing multiple sets of preferences

Stata’s preferences are automatically saved when you exit Stata, and they are reloaded when Stata
is launched. However, sometimes you may wish to rearrange Stata’s windows and then revert to your
preferred arrangement of windows. You can do this by saving your preferences to a named preference
set and loading them later. Any changes you make to Stata’s preferences after loading a preferences set
do not affect the set; the set remains untouched unless you specifically overwrite it.
To manage preferences, open the Edit > Preferences menu, and do any of the following:
• Select a preference set from the Load preference set menu to load it. Several different preference
sets come installed with Stata, some meant for small screens, others meant for giving presentations
involving Stata. They are worth a look.
• Select Save preference set > New preference set... to save the current preferences to a set. Enter
a name for the set, and click on OK.
• Select an existing set from the Save preference set menu to overwrite it with the current prefer-
ences.
• Select a preference set from the Delete preference set menu to delete it. Click on OK to verify
that you wish to delete the set.

Closing and opening windows

You can close all windows but the Results and Command windows. If you want to open a closed
window, open the Window menu and select the desired window.
18 Learning more about Stata

Where to go from here

You now know plenty enough to use Stata. There is still much, much more to learn because Stata is a
rich environment for doing statistical analysis and data management. What should you do to learn more?
• Get an interesting dataset and play with Stata.
a. Use the menus and dialog system to experiment with commands. Notice what commands
show up in the Results window. You will find that Stata’s simple and consistent command
syntax will make the commands easy to read so that you will know what you have done and
easy to remember so that typing some commands will be faster than using menus.
b. Play with graphs and the Graph Editor.
• If you venture into the Command window, you will find that many things will go faster. You will
also find that it is possible to make mistakes where you cannot understand why Stata is balking.
a. Try help commandname or Help > Stata command... and entering the command name.
b. Look at the command syntax and the examples in the help file, and compare them with what
you typed. Compare them closely: small typographical errors make commands impossible
for Stata to parse.
• Explore Stata by selecting Help > Search.... You will uncover many statistical routines that could
be of great use.
• Look through the Combined subject table of contents in the Stata Index.
• Read and work your way through the User’s Guide. It is designed to be read from cover to cover,
and it contains most of the information you need to become an expert Stata user. It is well worth
reading. If you are not this ambitious and instead prefer to sample the User’s Guide and the refer-
ences, there is some advice later in this chapter for you.
• Browse through the reference manuals to read about statistical methods you like to use, making
use of the links to jump to other topics. The reference manuals are not meant to be read from cover
to cover—they are meant to be referred to as you would an encyclopedia. You can find the datasets
used in the examples in the manuals by selecting File > Example datasets... and then clicking on
Stata 18 manual datasets. Doing so will enable you to work through the examples quickly.
• Stata has much information, including answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), at
https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/.
• There are many useful links to Stata resources at https://www.stata.com/links/. Be sure to look at
these materials because many outstanding resources about Stata are listed here.
• Join Statalist, a forum devoted to discussion of Stata and statistics.
• Read The Stata Blog: Not Elsewhere Classified at https://blog.stata.com to read articles written by
people at Stata about all things Stata.
• Visit Stata on Facebook at https://facebook.com/statacorp,
join Stata on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/statacorp,
find Stata on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/statacorp,
and follow Stata on Twitter at https://twitter.com/stata to keep up with Stata.
• Subscribe to the Stata Journal, which contains reviewed papers, regular columns, book reviews,
and other material of interest to researchers applying statistics in a variety of disciplines. Visit
https://www.stata-journal.com.

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 [ GSW ] 18 Learning more about Stata 127

• Many supplementary books about Stata are available. Visit the Stata Bookstore at
https://www.stata.com/bookstore/.
• Take a Stata NetCourse○R . NetCourse 101 is an excellent choice for learning about Stata. See
https://www.stata.com/netcourse/ for course information and schedules.
• Attend a classroom or a web-based training course taught by StataCorp. Visit
https://www.stata.com/training/classroom-and-web/ for course information and schedules.
• View a webinar led by Stata developers. Visit https://www.stata.com/training/webinar/ for the
current list of topics and schedule.
• Watch Stata videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/statacorp.

Suggested reading from the User’s Guide and reference manuals

The User’s Guide is designed to be read from cover to cover. The reference manuals are designed as
references to be sampled when necessary.
Ideally, after reading this Getting Started manual, you should read the User’s Guide from cover to
cover, but you probably want to become at least somewhat proficient in Stata right away. Here is a
suggested reading list of sections from the User’s Guide and the reference manuals to help you on your
way to becoming a Stata expert.
This list covers fundamental features and points you to some less obvious features that you might
otherwise overlook.
Basic elements of Stata
[U] 11 Language syntax
[U] 12 Data
[U] 13 Functions and expressions
Data management
[U] 6 Managing memory
[U] 22 Entering and importing data
[D] import — Overview of importing data into Stata
[D] append — Append datasets
[D] merge — Merge datasets
[D] compress — Compress data in memory
[D] frames intro — Introduction to frames
Graphics
[G] Stata Graphics Reference Manual
Reproducible research
[U] 16 Do-files
[U] 17 Ado-files
[U] 13.5 Accessing coefficients and standard errors
[U] 13.6 Accessing results from Stata commands
[U] 21 Creating reports
[RPT] Dynamic documents intro — Introduction to dynamic documents
[RPT] putdocx intro — Introduction to generating Office Open XML (.docx) files
[RPT] putexcel — Export results to an Excel file
 [ GSW ] 18 Learning more about Stata 128

[RPT] putpdf intro — Introduction to generating PDF files

[R] log — Echo copy of session to file
Useful features that you might overlook
[U] 29 Using the Internet to keep up to date
[U] 19 Immediate commands
[U] 24 Working with strings
[U] 25 Working with dates and times
[U] 26 Working with categorical data and factor variables
[U] 27 Overview of Stata estimation commands
[U] 20 Estimation and postestimation commands
[R] estimates — Save and manipulate estimation results
Basic statistics
[R] anova — Analysis of variance and covariance
[R] ci — Confidence intervals for means, proportions, and variances
[R] correlate — Correlations of variables
[D] egen — Extensions to generate
[R] regress — Linear regression
[R] predict — Obtain predictions, residuals, etc., after estimation
[R] regress postestimation — Postestimation tools for regress
[R] test — Test linear hypotheses after estimation
[R] summarize — Summary statistics
[R] table intro — Introduction to tables of frequencies, summaries, and command results
[R] tabulate oneway — One-way table of frequencies
[R] tabulate twoway — Two-way table of frequencies
[R] ttest — 𝑡 tests (mean-comparison tests)
Matrices
[U] 14 Matrix expressions
[U] 18.5 Scalars and matrices
[M] Mata Reference Manual
Programming
[U] 16 Do-files
[U] 17 Ado-files
[U] 18 Programming Stata
[R] ml — Maximum likelihood estimation
[P] Stata Programming Reference Manual
[M] Mata Reference Manual
System values
[R] set — Overview of system parameters
[P] creturn — Return c-class values
 [ GSW ] 18 Learning more about Stata 129

Internet resources
The Stata website (https://www.stata.com) is a good place to get more information about Stata. You
will find answers to FAQs, ways to interact with other users, official Stata updates, and other useful
information. You can also join Statalist, a forum devoted to discussion of Stata and statistics.
You will also find information on Stata NetCourses○R , which are interactive courses offered over the
Internet that vary in length from a few weeks to eight weeks. Stata also offers in-person and web-based
training sessions, as well as webinars on Stata features. Visit https://www.stata.com/learn/ for more
information.
At the website is the Stata Bookstore, which contains books that we feel may be of interest to Stata
users. Each book has a brief description written by a member of our technical staff explaining why we
think this book may be of interest.
We suggest that you take a quick look at the Stata website now. You can register your copy of Stata
online and request a free subscription to the Stata News.
Visit https://www.stata-press.com for information on books, manuals, and journals published by Stata
Press. The datasets used in examples in the Stata manuals are available from the Stata Press website.
Also visit https://www.stata-journal.com to read about the Stata Journal, a quarterly publication con-
taining articles about statistics, data analysis, teaching methods, and effective use of Stata’s language.
Visit Stata’s official blog at https://blog.stata.com for news and advice related to the use of Stata. The
articles appearing in the blog are individually signed and are written by the same people who develop,
support, and sell Stata. The Stata Blog: Not Elsewhere Classified also has links to other blogs about
Stata, written by Stata users around the world.
Follow Stata on Facebook at https://facebook.com/statacorp, Twitter at https://twitter.com/stata, In-
stagram at https://www.instagram.com/statacorp, and LinkedIn at
https://www.linkedin.com/company/statacorp. You may also follow Stata on Twitter at
https://twitter.com/stata fr or https://twitter.com/stata es. These are good ways to stay up-to-the-
minute with the latest Stata information. Watch short example videos of using Stata on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/user/statacorp.
See [GSW] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality for details on accessing offi-
cial Stata updates and free additions to Stata on the Stata website.
19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality

Internet functionality in Stata

Stata works well with the Internet. Stata can use datasets and view remote help files as though they
were on your computer. Stata also can keep itself up to date (with your permission, of course). Finally,
you can install community-contributed commands, which are commands that extend Stata’s functionality.
These are commands that have been presented in the Stata Journal (SJ) or have simply been written and
shared by the greater Stata community.
This chapter will show you how you can expand Stata’s horizons.

Using files from the Internet

Stata understands URLs as though they were local file locations. If you know of a file on the web that
you would like to use, be it a dataset, a graph, or a do-file, you can easily open it in Stata. Here is a small
example.
There are many datasets at https://www.stata-press.com/data/. Suppose that you would like to
use the census12 dataset used in [U] 11 Language syntax and that you know that its location is
https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/census12.dta. Because you know that the command for opening
a dataset is use, you could type the following:
 
. use https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/census12.dta
(1980 Census data by state)
. describe
Contains data from https://www.stata-press.com/data/r18/census12.dta
Observations: 50 1980 Census data by state
Variables: 7 6 Apr 2022 15:43

Variable Storage Display Value

name type format label Variable label

state str14 %14s State

state2 str2 %-2s Two-letter state abbreviation
region str7 %9s Census region
pop long %10.0g Population
median_age float %9.2f Median age
marriage_rate float %9.0g
divorce_rate float %9.0g

Sorted by:
 

This functionality is everywhere in Stata. Any command that reads a file with a filename in its syntax
can use a web address as easily as a file that is stored on your computer.
This example used the HTTPS protocol for retrieving the file. Stata also understands the HTTP and FTP
protocols.

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 [ GSW ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality 131

Official Stata updates

By official Stata, we mean the pieces of Stata that are provided and supported by StataCorp. The other
and equally important pieces are the community-contributed additions published in the SJ, distributed
over Statalist, or distributed in other ways.
Stata can fetch both official updates and community-contributed commands from the Internet. Let’s
start with the official updates. StataCorp often releases updates to official Stata. These updates add new
features and, sometimes, fix bugs.
By default, Stata has automatic update checking turned on and set to check for updates every seven
days. To change or check your settings, select Edit > Preferences > General preferences... and click
on the General tab.
We recommend using automatic update checking because it is a simple, unobtrusive way to be sure
that your copy of Stata is always up to date. If you keep this default, you will be prompted with a dialog
when you start Stata if you have not recently checked for updates.
To manually check whether there are any official Stata updates, either click on Help > Check for
updates or type update query in the Command window. Regardless of which choice you make, Stata
goes to check for official updates. After it checks, it will show you your update status. If your copy of
Stata is already up to date, you will be told. If your copy of Stata needs updating, you will be told, and a
link, Install available updates, will show up in your Results window. You can click on this link or
type update all and press Enter. In either case, Stata will download what is needed to bring your copy
of Stata up to date. Stata will need to restart after being updated, so it gives you a chance to postpone
the update in case there was something (such as saving the command history) you wanted to do in the
current session.
Troubleshooting note: If you do not have write permission for C:\Program Files\Stata18, you
cannot install official updates in this way. You may still download the official updates, but you will
need to use the command-line version of update; see [U] 29 Using the Internet to keep up to date for
instructions.

Automatic update checking

Stata can periodically check for updates for you. By default, Stata will check once every seven days
for updates from the StataCorp website. The seven-day interval is from the last time an update query
was performed, regardless of whether it was by Stata or by you. You can change the interval between
checks.
Before Stata connects to the Internet to check for an update, it will ask you if you would like to check
now, check the next time Stata is launched, or check after the next interval. You can disable the prompt
and allow Stata to check without asking.
If an update is available, Stata will notify you. From there, you should follow the recommendations
for updating Stata.
You can change the settings for automatic update checking by selecting Edit > Preferences >
General preferences... and choosing General.
 [ GSW ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality 132

Finding community-contributed commands by keyword

Stata has a built-in utility created specifically to search the Internet for community-contributed Stata
commands. You can access it by selecting Help > Search..., choosing Search net resources, and entering
a keyword in the field. Choosing Help > SJ and community-contributed features yields more specific
choices for searching. The utility searches all community-contributed commands on the Internet, includ-
ing the entire collection of SJ commands. The results are displayed in the Viewer, and you can click to
go to any of the matches found.
For the syntax on how to use the equivalent search keywords, net command, see [R] search.

Downloading community-contributed commands

Downloading community-contributed commands is easy. Start by selecting Help > SJ and
community-contributed features:

As the Viewer says, try Search... first.

Suppose that you were interested in finding more information or some community-contributed com-
mands involving goodness of fit for logistic regression. You select Help > Search..., select Search all,
type logistic goodness of fit in the search box, and click on the OK button.
[ GSW ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality 133
 [ GSW ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality 134

The first entry points you to all the postestimation commands that are available after logistic re-
gression. The second entry points to Stata’s built-in estat gof command specifically for computing
goodness-of-fit statistics after logistic regression. You investigate this command and find it interesting.
You see that the next three links point to FAQs and examples on UCLA’s website. Then the next three links
are for articles in the SJ. You are interested in multinomial logistic regression, so you decide to check the
last of these links. It points to an article in the SJ, volume 12, number 3 (third quarter). You should click
on the st0269 link because it will go to the command associated with this article.

You will see that the package has one help file for the new commands. Click the
st0269/mlogitgof.sthlp link to see if the mlogitgof command looks interesting. If you decide
that you would like to install the command, click the Back button and click on the link click here to
install. If you decide that you would like to use some of the ancillary files—files that typically help
explain the workings of the command, you could download those, too. You do not need to worry—doing
so will not interfere in any way with your copy of Stata. We will show you how to safely uninstall these
commands shortly.
 [ GSW ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality 135

You can keep the community-contributed commands you have installed up to date by using the ado
update command. Typing ado update will check for updates, while typing ado update, update will
check for updates and install any available updates.
Now suppose that you decide that you would like to uninstall the package. Doing so is simple enough:
select Help > SJ and community-contributed features, and click on the List link. You should see the
following:
 [ GSW ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality 136

If you click on the one-line description of the package, you will see the full description of what has
been installed. Here is what you would see if you scroll to the bottom, with a different install date, of
course:

You can uninstall materials by clicking on click here to uninstall when you are looking at the
package description.
For information on downloading community-contributed commands by using the net command, see
[R] net.
A Troubleshooting Stata
Contents
A.1 If Stata does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
A.2 Troubleshooting tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

A.1 If Stata does not start

You tried to start Stata and it refused; Stata or your operating system presented a message explaining
that something is wrong. Here are the possibilities:
Cannot find license file
This message means just what it says; nothing is too seriously wrong. Stata simply could not find
the license file it was looking for. The most common reason for this is that you did not complete the
installation process.
Did you enter the codes on your license to unlock Stata? If not, go back and complete the initialization
procedure.
Error opening or reading the file
Something is distinctly wrong for purely technical reasons. Stata found the file that it was looking
for, but there was an I/O error.
About the only way this situation could arise would be a hard-disk error. Stata technical support will
be able to help you diagnose the problem; see [U] 3.8 Technical support.
License not applicable
Stata has determined that you have a valid license, but the license does not apply to the version that
you are trying to run.
The most common reason for this message is that you have a license for Stata/BE but you are trying
to run Stata/SE or Stata/MP, or you have a license for Stata/SE but you are trying to run Stata/MP. If
any of these is the case, run the installer again, choose Modify, click on the Next button, and choose
the appropriate edition.
Other messages
The other messages indicate that Stata thinks you are attempting to do something that you are not
licensed to do. Most commonly, you are attempting to run Stata over a network when you do not have
a network license, but there are many other alternatives. There are two possibilities: either you really
are attempting to do something that you are not licensed to do or Stata is wrong. In either case, you
are going to have to contact us. Your license can be upgraded, or if Stata is wrong, we can provide
codes to make Stata stop thinking that you are violating the license; see [U] 3.8 Technical support.

137
 [ GSW ] A Troubleshooting Stata 138

A.2 Troubleshooting tips

If you experience an unexpected problem, first make sure that your version is up to date (see
[GSW] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality for information on updating). If
the problem still exists, look at the frequently asked questions (FAQs) for Windows in the user-support
section of the Stata website, https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/windows/. You may find the answer to
the problem there. If not, we can help, but you must give us as much information as possible.
Reboot your computer, restart Stata, and try to reproduce the problem, writing down everything you
do before the fault occurs. We will want that information.
If Stata used to work on your computer but suddenly stopped working, try to remember any hardware
or software that you have recently installed.
Also give us as much information about your computer as possible. What version of Windows are you
running? How much memory do you have? What processor do you have? What brand is your computer?
Finally, we need your Stata serial number and the revision date of your version of Stata. Include them
if you email, and know them if you call. You can obtain them by typing the about command in Stata’s
Command window. about lets you know everything about your copy of Stata, including the version and
the date it was produced.
B Advanced Stata usage
Contents
B.1 The Windows Properties Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
B.2 Making shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
B.3 Executing commands every time Stata is started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
B.4 Other ways to launch Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
B.5 Stata batch mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
B.6 Running simultaneous Stata sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
B.7 Changing Stata’s locale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
B.8 More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
B.9 Memory size considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

B.1 The Windows Properties Sheet

When you double-click on a shortcut to start an application in Windows, you are actually executing
instructions defined in the shortcut’s Properties Sheet. To open the Properties Sheet for any shortcut,
right-click on the shortcut, and select Properties.
Open the Properties Sheet for Stata’s shortcut. Click on the Shortcut tab. You will see something
like the following:

StataSE
Target type: Application
Target location: Stata18
Target: C:\Program Files\Stata18\StataSE.exe /UseRegistryStartin
Start in:
Shortcut key: None
Run: Normal window

The field names may be slightly different, depending on the version of Windows that you are running.
The names and locations of files may vary from this. There are two things to pay attention to: the Target
and Start in fields. Target is the actual command that is executed to invoke Stata. Start in is the directory
to switch to before invoking the application. You can change these fields and then click on OK to save
the updated Properties Sheet.
You can have Stata start in any directory you desire. If necessary, delete the parameter
/UseRegistryStartin from your Target field. Then change the Start in field of Stata’s Properties
Sheet to the location you would like Stata to have as its default working directory. Of course, once Stata
is running, you can change directories whenever you wish by using File > Change working directory...;
see also [D] cd.

139
 [ GSW ] B Advanced Stata usage 140

B.2 Making shortcuts

You can arrange to start Stata without going through the Start menu by creating a shortcut on the
Desktop. The easiest way to do this is to copy the existing Stata shortcut to the Desktop. You can also
create a shortcut directly from the Stata executable. Here are the details:
1. Open the C:\Program Files\Stata18 folder or the folder where you installed Stata or StataNow.
2. In the folder, find the executable for which you want a new shortcut. The filenames are

Stata/MP or StataNow/MP: StataMP-64.exe

Stata/SE or StataNow/SE: StataSE-64.exe
Stata/BE or StataNow/BE: StataBE-64.exe

Right-click on and drag the appropriate executable onto the Desktop.

3. Release the mouse button, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here from the menu that appears.
You have now created a shortcut. If you want the shortcut in a folder rather than on the Desktop, you can
drag it into whatever folder appeals to you.
You set the properties for this shortcut just as you would normally. Right-click on the shortcut, and
select Properties. Edit the Properties Sheet as explained above in [GSW] B.1 The Windows Properties
Sheet.

B.3 Executing commands every time Stata is started

Stata looks for the file profile.do when it is invoked and, if it finds it, executes the commands in it.
Stata looks for profile.do first in the directory where Stata is installed, then in the current directory,
then along your path, then in your home directory as defined by Windows’s USERPROFILE environment
variable (typically C:\Users\username), and finally along the ado-path (see [P] sysdir). We recommend
that you put profile.do in your home directory.
If you create a shortcut that starts in a different directory, it will run the profile.do from that direc-
tory. This feature allows you to have different profile.do files for different projects.
Say that every time you start Stata, you would like to start a dated log for the session. In
C:\Users\mydir, create the file profile.do containing this rather odd-looking command:
log using ‘: display %tCCCYY-NN-DD-HH-MM-SS ///
Clock(”‘c(current_date)’ ‘c(current_time)’”,”DMYhms”)’, ///
name(default_log_file)

When you invoke Stata, the usual opening appears but with the following additional command, which
will be executed:
running C:\Users\mydir\profile.do ...

How does the command work? Let’s work from the inside out:
• c(current date) and c(current time) are local system macros containing the current date
and current time. See [P] creturn for more information.
• The left (‘) and right (’) quotes around the local macros expand them. See [P] macro for a full
explanation.
• The Clock() function uses the resulting date string and the date mask ”DMYhms” to create a date-
time number Stata understands. See [D] Datetime.
 [ GSW ] B Advanced Stata usage 141

• The format %tCCCYY-NN-DD-HH-MM-SS formats this number in year-month-day-hour-minute-

second form because this will make the files sort nicely. See [D] Datetime display formats for
the details.
• The odd-looking ‘: display ...’ allows the formatted date to be used directly in the command
as the file name. This is the advanced concept of an in-line expansion of a macro function. You
can see more in [P] macro.
• The log using command starts a log file, such as shown in [GSW] 16 Saving and printing results
by using logs.
• The name option gives the log file the internal name default log file so that it will not likely
conflict with other log files. See [R] log for details.
• Finally, the /// notations are continuation comments so that the three separate lines are interpreted
as a single command. See [P] comments for more about comments.
There are many advanced Stata programming concepts in this one single command!
profile.do is treated just as any other do-file once it is executed; results are just the same as if you
had started Stata and then typed run profile.do. The only special thing about profile.do is that
Stata looks for it and runs it automatically.
System administrators might also find sysprofile.do useful. This file is handled in the same way
as profile.do, except that Stata first looks for sysprofile.do. If that file is found, Stata will execute
any commands it contains. After that, Stata will look for profile.do and, if that file is found, execute
the commands in it.
One example of how sysprofile.do might be useful would be when system administrators want to
change the path to one of Stata’s system directories. Here sysprofile.do could be created to contain
the command
sysdir set SITE ”\\Matador\StataFiles”

See [U] 16 Do-files for an explanation of do-files. They are nothing more than text files containing
sequences of commands for Stata to execute.

B.4 Other ways to launch Stata

The first time that you start Stata for Windows, Stata registers with Windows the actions to perform
when you double-click on certain types of files. You can then start a new instance of Stata by double-
clicking on a Stata .dta dataset, a Stata .do do-file, or a Stata .gph graph file. In all cases, your current
working directory will become the folder containing the file you have double-clicked.
Stata will behave as you would expect in each case. If you double-click on a dataset, Stata will open
the dataset after Stata starts. If you double-click on a graph, the graph will be opened by Stata. If you
double-click on a do-file, the do-file will be opened in the Do-file Editor.
If you would rather run a do-file directly, right-click on the do-file. You will see menu items for
Execute (do) and Execute quietly (run). In Windows 11, you will first need to select Show more
options and then choose the execute item. These items will complete the requested action in a new
instance of Stata.
If you want to edit a do-file, look at a graph, or open a dataset without starting a new instance of Stata,
drag the file over Stata’s main window.
 [ GSW ] B Advanced Stata usage 142

B.5 Stata batch mode

You can run large jobs in Stata in batch mode. There are a few different ways to do this, depending
on what your goals are.
Method 1
If you have a particular location where your log file should be after the job is done, this is the method
you should use.
In Windows 11 and Windows 10, type cmd in the search box in the taskbar, and press Enter.
You should now have a command prompt window open. Change the current directory to the
place you would like the log file to be by using the cd command. For example, suppose your
bigjob do-file is in C:\Users\someone\statastuff, and you would like to save your log in
C:\Users\someone\statalogs. You would type the following to suppress all screen output and place
the log file in the proper location:
cd C:\Users\someone\statalogs
”C:\Program Files\Stata18\StataSE.exe” /e do ”C:\Users\someone\statastuff\bigjob”

You must specify the location of the Stata executable.

The /e parameter above tells Stata how to behave when running in batch mode. The available pa-
rameters and their purposes are

Parameter Result
/b set background (batch) mode and log in plain text
/e set background (batch) mode and log in plain text without prompting when
Stata command has completed
/q suppress logo and initialization messages
/rngstream# set random-number generator to mt64s (see [R] set rng) and set
random-number stream to # (see [R] set rngstream)
/s set background (batch) mode and log in SMCL
/i suppress Stata application icon in the Windows taskbar

Method 2
If you would like to have a batch job that you could run at a particular time or that you could save for
later use, you can use the Task Scheduler, which is part of most Windows installations.
This is a bit more advanced, and its implementation differs slightly for each kind of Windows, but
here is the general gist.
In Windows 11 and Windows 10, you can search for the Task Scheduler in the search box in the
taskbar. Once you have opened the Task Scheduler, click on Create Basic Task, and follow the steps of
the Basic Task Schedule Wizard to schedule a do-file to run in batch mode. You must specify the /b or
/e option. In the Start in field, type the path where you would like the log file to be saved. When this
file runs, all output will be suppressed and written to a log file that will be saved in the path specified.
 [ GSW ] B Advanced Stata usage 143

General notes
While your do-file is executing, the Stata icon will appear on the taskbar.
If you click on the icon on the taskbar, Stata will display a box asking if you want to cancel the batch
job.
Once the do-file is complete, Stata will flash the icon on the taskbar on and off. You can then click
on the icon to close Stata. If you wish for Stata to automatically exit after running the batch do-file, use
/e rather than /b.
You do not have to run large do-files in batch mode. Any do-file that you run in batch mode can also
be run interactively. Simply start Stata, type log using filename, and type do filename. You can then
watch the do-file run, or you can minimize Stata while the do-file is running.

B.6 Running simultaneous Stata sessions

Each time you double-click on the Stata icon or launch Stata in any other way, you invoke a new
instance of Stata, so if you want to run multiple Stata sessions simultaneously, you may. The title bar of
each new Stata that is invoked will reflect its instance number.

B.7 Changing Stata’s locale

To change the locale of Stata to English, type
set locale_ui en

To change it back to match the locale set for your operating system, type
set locale_ui default

For a complete explanation of locales and Stata, see [U] 12.4.2.4 Locales in Unicode.
 [ GSW ] B Advanced Stata usage 144

B.8 More
If you would like Stata to pause every time the screen fills with results, type set more on. This will
cause a more prompt to appear at the bottom of the Results window whenever there is more information
to be displayed than can fit on the screen. This happens, for example, when you are listing many
observations.
 
. list make mpg

make mpg

1. Linc. Continental 12
2. Linc. Mark V 12
3. Cad. Deville 14
4. Cad. Eldorado 14
5. Linc. Versailles 14

6. Merc. Cougar 14
7. Merc. XR-7 14
8. Peugeot 604 14
9. Buick Electra 15
10. Merc. Marquis 15

11. Buick Riviera 16

12. Chev. Impala 16
13. Dodge Magnum 16
14. Olds Toronado 16
15. AMC Pacer 17

16. Audi 5000 17

17. Dodge St. Regis 17
18. Volvo 260 17
19. Buick LeSabre 18
20. Dodge Diplomat 18

more
 

If you want to see the next screen of text, you have a few options: press any key, such as the Spacebar;
click on the More button, ; or click on the more link at the bottom of the Results window. To see
just the next line of text, press Enter. Pressing q will interrupt the command. If you click on the arrow of
the More button, you can also select the Run to completion menu item to let the command completely
finish.

B.9 Memory size considerations

Memory management in Stata is automatic. For details on efficiency tweaks needed by a very few
Stata users, look at [D] memory.
C More on Stata for Windows
Contents
C.1 Using Stata datasets and graphs created on other platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
C.2 Exporting a Stata graph to another document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
C.3 Installing Stata for Windows on a network drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
C.4 Calling Stata from Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
C.5 Changing a Stata for Windows license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

C.1 Using Stata datasets and graphs created on other platforms

Stata will open any Stata .dta dataset or .gph graph file regardless of the platform on which it was
created, even if it was a Mac or Unix system. Also Stata for Mac and Stata for Unix users can use any
files that you create. If you transfer a Stata file by using file transfer protocol (FTP), just remember to
transfer by using binary mode rather than ASCII.

C.2 Exporting a Stata graph to another document

Suppose that you wish to export a Stata graph to a document created by your favorite word processor
or presentation application. You have two main choices for exporting graphs: you may copy and paste
the graph by using the Clipboard, or you may save the graph in one of several formats and import the
graph into the application.

Exporting the graph by using the Clipboard

The easiest way to export a Stata graph into another application is by copying and pasting.
Either create your graph or redisplay an existing graph. To copy it to the Clipboard, right-click on the
Graph window, and select Copy. Stata will copy the graph as an Enhanced Metafile (EMF); this ensures
that the receiving application obtains it in the highest resolution possible.
A metafile contains the commands necessary to redraw the graph. That is, a metafile is a collection
of lines, points, text, and color information. Metafiles, therefore, can be edited in a structured drawing
program.
After you have copied the graph to the Clipboard, switch to the application into which you wish to
import the graph and paste it. In most applications, this is accomplished by selecting Edit > Paste.
Consult the documentation for your particular application for more details.

145
 [ GSW ] C More on Stata for Windows 146

Exporting the graph to a file

Stata can export graphs to several different file formats. If you right-click on a graph, select Save
as..., and then click on the drop-down menu next to Save as type, you will see that Stata can save in the
following file types:
Enhanced Metafile (EMF, .emf), Enhanced PostScript (EPS, .eps) with or without a TIFF Preview,
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG, .jpg) with High Quality or Maximum Quality, Portable Docu-
ment Format (PDF, .pdf), Portable Network Graphics (PNG, .png), PostScript (PS, .ps), Scalable Vector
Graphics (SVG, .svg), and Tag Image File Format (TIFF, .tif).
EMF, EPS, PDF, PS, and SVG are vector formats, whereas JPEG, PNG, and TIFF are bitmap formats. If
you wish to include a thumbnail of the graph with an EPS file, choose EPS with TIFF Preview (*.eps).
Choosing the preview option does not affect how the graph is printed. PNG and SVG are well suited for
placing graphs on a webpage. See [G-2] graph export for more information.

C.3 Installing Stata for Windows on a network drive

You will need a network license before you can install Stata on a network drive. You can install Stata
from the server; or if you have the appropriate privileges, you can install Stata directly to the network
drive.
Once Stata is installed, run it to initialize the license. Mount the network drive that Stata is installed
on from a workstation. Right-click on the Desktop or on the Windows Start menu, and select New >
Shortcut. Type the path for the Stata executable into the edit field, or click on Browse... to locate it.
Type Stata as the name of the shortcut.
Once a shortcut for Stata has been created, right-click on it, and select Properties. Set the default
working directory for Stata by changing the Start in field to a local drive that users have write access
to. This is where Stata will store datasets, graphs, and other Stata-related files. If the workstation
will be used by more than one user, consider changing the Start in field to the environment variable
%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. Doing so will set the default working directory to each user’s home direc-
tory.

C.4 Calling Stata from Python

You can call Stata from Python using the pystata Python package. This includes a suite of API functions
and IPython magic commands that can be used to interact with Stata and Mata. To learn more about the
pystata Python package, view the online documentation at https://www.stata.com/python/pystata. Or see
[P] PyStata module for more information.

C.5 Changing a Stata for Windows license

If you have already installed Stata and your license needs to be changed, go to Help > About Stata,
then click on the Update license... button on the lower left. You can either browse renewal options or
enter a new License and Activation Key.
Subject index
This is the subject index for the Getting Started with Stata for Windows manual. Readers may also want to consult the
combined subject index (and the combined author index) in the Stata Index.

A commands,
compared with menus, 23
ado command, 39
downloading and installing, 132–134
arithmetic operators, see operators, arithmetic
learning, 31, 126–128
auto hide, see windows, Auto Hide
uninstalling, 135
automatic update checking, see updates, automatic update
updating, 135
checking
comments, see log files, commenting
contextual menu, 25
B Graph window, 116
batch mode, 142–143 History window, 29
blog, see Stata Blog Variables window, 28
Break button, see button, Break Viewer window, 38
browse command, 2, 7, 63 copy, 49
button, copying,
Break, 26, 93 data, see data, copying
Clear more condition, 26, 144 graphs, see graphs, copying
Data Browser, 49 text, see text, copying
Data Editor (Browse), 2, 26 correlate command, 16, 17
Data Editor (Edit), 26, 49, 51 creating variables, see variables, creating
Do, see button, Execute (do)
Do-file Editor, 26, 105 D
Execute (do), 105, 107, 111 data,
Execute Quietly (run), 111 copying, 55, 72
Graph, 18, 26 tips, 56
Graph Editor, 116 entering, 51–56
Log, 24, 26, 120 graphing, 17–22
Open, 26 importing, see importing data
Print, 26 labeling, 77–82
Reset, 21 listing, 83–93
Run, see button, Execute (do) pasting, 55, 72
Save, 26 sorting, 56
Show file in Viewer, 112 strings, 53
Variables Manager, 26 Data Editor, 2–3, 49–63
Viewer, 26, 35 attach value labels, 57
by() option, 15, 19 browse mode, 63
by prefix, 14, 16, 23 toolbar button, 26
by/if/in tab, 7, 13, 16, 31 cell navigation, 53
color coding, 3, 52
C contextual menus, 50
create value labels, 57
cd command, 32, 139 creating variables, 58
clear command, 101 cursor location box, 51–53, 56
clear more condition, see more condition date
cmdlog command, 123 editing, 60–61
codebook command, 5–6, 42 formats, 60
command history, 27 mask, 60–61
command syntax, 23–24 edit mode toolbar button, 26
Command window, 25, 27, 32 edit within cell, 53

147
 [ GSW ] Subject index 148

Data Editor (continued) Do,

empty columns, 52 button, see button, Execute (do)
empty rows, 52 menu item, 111
enter data by column, 52 do-file, 105–109, 112, 123, 140
enter data by row, 51 editing, see Do-file Editor
entering data, 51–56 tips, 108
filtering, 9, 62 troubleshooting, 107–109
fonts, 124 Do-file Editor, 104–112
hiding variables, 62 balancing braces, 110–111
limiting exposure, 61–63 buttons, 104–105
movement, 50–51 changing case, 110
opening, 51 editing help files, 112
reordering variables, 62 editing tools, 110
right-clicking, 50 fonts, 124
searching, 56 getting History window contents, 29
snapshots, 58–59 inserting a file, 110
sorting, 50, 56 matching parentheses, 110
tips, 61, 75 next bookmark, 105
toolbar, 49 previous bookmark, 105
Tools menu, 56–63 select entire line, 111
value labels, 57 syntax highlighting, 106
when to browse, 61 toggle bookmark, 105
data management, 2–8 toolbar button, 26
data type, see variables, data type Tools menu, 111
dataset, 4 Execute (do), 111
changing, 56–63 Execute (do) from top, 111
notes, 3 Execute (do) line, 111
opening, 47, 145 Execute (do) to bottom, 111
saving, 48 Execute (include), 111
saving in old format, 48 Execute quietly (run), 111
structure, 2, 3 Show file in Viewer, 112
dates, editing, see Data Editor, date editing View menu, 111
db command, 31 docking guides, see windows, docking guides
dBASE, 76 docking windows, see windows, docking
decode command, 94 drop command, 101–102
deleting variables, see variables, dropping dropping variables, see variables, dropping
describe command, 3, 77–82 dummy variable, see indicator variable
with short option, 51 dynamic documents, 127
descriptive statistics, 8–14, 16–17 dyndoc command, 106
destring command, 94
dialogs, 30–31 E
accessing from Command window, 31
Cancel button, 31 edit command, 62
Copy button, 31 editing data, see Data Editor
Help button, 31 editing dates, see Data Editor, date editing
OK button, 31 editing do-file, see Do-file Editor
Reset button, 31 egen command, 94
saving commands, 112 EMF, 145
Submit button, 31 Encapsulated Postscript, see EPS
Variables field, 5, 7 encode command, 94
directory, working, see working directory Enhanced Metafile, see EMF
display format, see variables, display format EPS, 146
displaying graphs, see graphs, schemes equality, 13, 88
 [ GSW ] Subject index 149

examples, graphs (continued)

dialogs, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13–18, 20, 21, 30, 115 editing, see Graph Editor
graphs, 17–22, 115, 117 examples, see examples, graphs
help, 40–43 export formats, 146
if qualifier, 7, 8, 13, 62–63, 86–90, 102–103 exporting, 145
in qualifier, 91 overlaid, 21–22
menus, 1, 3–5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13–18, 20, 21, 30–31, 115 printing, 22, 116
varlist, 62, 84–86 renaming, 116
Excel, see import excel command right-clicking, 116
exp, see expressions saving, 116
expressions, 86, 94 schemes, 124
subgraphs, 18
F GUI, 25–34

Facebook, 126, 129

Federal Reserve Economic Data, 76 H
filenames, quotes, 47 Haver Analytics databases, 76
files, double-clicking, 141 help command, 44
fitted values, see predict command help for command, 39
fonts, help system, 40–46
changing in graphs, see graphs, schemes FAQs, 40
changing in one graph, see Graph Editor links, 42
changing in windows, see preferences, font menu, 40
preferences, see preferences, font search dialog, 40
functions, 94 searching, 40–46, 132–134
tips, 44
G videos, 40, 45
generate command, 19, 20, 22, 95–100 History window, 1, 25, 29, 32
tips, 98 contextual menu, 29
troubleshooting, 97 filtering, 29
generating variables, see variables, creating hiding errors, 29
Google+, 126 reusing commands, 29, 58
Graph Editor, 117–119 right-click, 29, 123
abilities, 118 saving contents, 29
closing, see Graph Editor, stopping sending contents to Do-file Editor, 29
contextual toolbar, 117–118 tip, 123
experimentation, 118 hypothesis testing, 15
Grid edit tool, 118
Object Browser, 118 I
recording, 118
identifier variable, 5
starting, 117
if qualifier, 7, 8, 13, 23, 24, 83, 86–90, 96, 101
stopping, 118
troubleshooting, 88–90
tools, 117
import dbase command, 76
Undo button, 118
import delimited command, 73–76
graph setup, see graphs, schemes
import excel command, 73, 75, 76
Graph window, 18, 116
import fred command, 76
contextual menu, 116
import haver command, 76
right-clicking, 116–117
import sas command, 73, 75, 76
toolbar button, 26
import sasxport command, 73
Graphical User Interface, see GUI
import sasxport5 command, 75, 76
graphs,
import sasxport8 command, 75, 76
copy and paste, 145
import spss command, 73, 75, 76
copying, 116
 [ GSW ] Subject index 150

importing data, 72–76 log files (continued)

comma-delimited, see import delimited command file extension, 122
copying and pasting, 55, 72, 75, 76 keeping just commands, 123
ODBC, see ODBC multiple open at once, 121
paste special, 56 overwriting, 120
tips, 76 plain text, 120, 122
in qualifier, 23, 24, 83, 91, 101 printing, 122
indicator variable, 6, 19, 98 rerunning commands, 123
generating, 95 SMCL, 120, 122
infile command, 73, 76 starting, 120
infix command, 73, 76 tips, 122
Internet, 130–136 translating formats, 120, 122
installing programs, see commands, downloading and types, 122
installing viewing, 122
resources, 126–129 logical
searching, 132–134 expression, 86–89
using remote files, 130 operators, see operators, logical

J M
Java, 106
Markdown, 106
jdbc command, 73, 76
median, 9
K
memory, 6, 47, 78, 144
allocation, 144
keep command, 101, 103 menus, 30
compared with commands, 23
L examples, see examples, menus
label command, 79 missing() function, 8, 63, 87
label data command, 79 missing values, 3, 5, 7, 11, 52, 56, 57, 86–87, 95–96, 100
label define command, 80, 82 extended, 57
label values command, 79, 82 more condition, 26, 144
label variable command, 22, 79
labels, N
data, 3, 79–80
net command, 39
value, 3–6, 10, 14, 79, 81–82
NetCourses, see Stata NetCourses
confusing with string variable, 89
network installation, 146
why needed, 6
nondocking windows, see windows, nondocking
variable, 4, 5, 79
Not Elsewhere Classified, see Stata Blog
license, 146
notes,
changing, 146
managing, 69–71
line, twoway subcommand, 21
timestamps, 71
linear regression, see regression, linear
numlist, 91
linking windows, see windows, linking
list command, 8, 74, 83–93
listing data, see data, listing O
loading data, see dataset, opening observations, 2
locale, 143 ODBC, 76
Log button, 26 odbc command, 73, 76
log command, 120–122 one-way table, see table, one-way
log files, 24, 120–123 open, 49
appending, 120 Open toolbar button, 26
commenting, 121 opening a dataset, see dataset, opening
contents, 121
 [ GSW ] Subject index 151

operators, regress command, 20, 23

arithmetic, 94 regression,
logical, 86, 88, 94 linear, 19–23, 109
relational, 86, 94 Poisson, 30
string, 100 relational operators, see operators, relational
options, 8, 23, 24, 43, 83, 92 replace command, 94–98
output, printing and saving, see log files reproducible research, 127
Output settings dialog, 122 Results window, 1, 18, 25, 27
color scheme, 125
P fonts, 124
searching, 27
paste, 49 Run button, see button, Execute (do)
pasting,
data, see data, pasting
S
graphs, see graphs, copy and paste
text, see text, pasting sample session, 1–24
PDF, 122, 146 SAS, see import sas command
PDF documentation, 40, 42, 44 save, 49
PNG, 146 save command, 32, 48
poisson command, 30 Save toolbar button, 26
Portable Network Graphics, see PNG saveold command, 48
postestimation commands, 20 saving
precision, 78 data, see dataset, saving
predict command, 20 output, see log files
preferences, 124–125 scatter, twoway subcommand, 17–19, 21
Clipboard, 124 search command, 39, 44
font, 124–125 searching help system, see help system, searching
Graph window, 124 set more command, 144
loading, 125 shortcuts, 139–140
managing, 125 Show file in Viewer button, see button, Show file in Viewer
saving, 125 SMCL, 37, 105, 112, 120
window, 124–125 splitters, see windows, splitters
prefix command, 14, 23 SPSS, see import spss command
Printer preferences dialog, 122 Stata
printing, 26 batch mode, 142–143
contents of Viewer, 38 Blog, 126, 129
graphs, 116 Bookstore, 127
output, 122 datasets available, 126, 130
toolbar button, 26 executing commands at startup, 140
profile.do, 140 FAQs, 126
Project Manager, 109, 113 Graph Editor, see Graph Editor
projects, 113 learning more, 126–129
Properties Sheet, 139, 140 Markup and Control Language, see SMCL
Properties window, 2, 25, 32, 53 NetCourses, 127, 129
hiding, 29 output, 1
revealing, 29 Press, 129
PyStata, 106, 146 public training courses, 127
Python, 106, 146 reading list, 127–128
simultaneous sessions, 143
R starting, 139, 142
starts with an error, see troubleshooting
reading list, see Stata reading list Statalist, 126
recording sessions, see log files training, 127, 129
reference manuals, 44 troubleshooting, see troubleshooting
 [ GSW ] Subject index 152

Stata (continued) U
updating, see updates
Unicode, 100
user interface, see GUI
update command, 39
videos, 45, 127
updates, 39, 131
webinars, 127
automatic update checking, 131
won’t start, see troubleshooting
troubleshooting, 131
working directory, see working directory
use command, 47
Stata Journal, 40–41, 45–46, 126, 129, 130
User’s Guide, 126
Stata News, 129
ustrpos() function, 100
status bar, 32
usubstr() function, 100
storage type, see variables, data type
string variable, see variables, string
strings, 99–100 V
quoting, 89 value labels, creating and managing, 57
summarize command, 4, 8, 13–14, 24 variables, 2
SVG, 146 allowable names, 54
syntax, 42, 83–93 creating, 58, 94–100
abbreviations, 83 data type, 4–6, 78, 95
diagram, 24 display format, 4, 78
list command, 83 dropping, 28, 69, 101–102
syntax note, 2, 5, 7–19, 23 formatting, 53
sysprofile.do, 141 generating, see variables, creating
sysuse command, 1 keeping, 28, 69
missing values, see missing values
T name, 4, 78
abbreviating, 74, 84–86
tabbing windows, see windows, tabbing
autocompletion, 27
table,
naming, 53
one-way, 10–11, 14
renaming, 53
two-way, 11–12
storage type, see variables, data type
tabs, 29
string, 4, 5, 99–100
tabulate command, 11–14
confusing with value labels, 89
text,
Unicode, 78
copying, 104
text, see variables, string
pasting, 104
Variables Manager, 68–71
text variables, see variables, string
contextual menus, 69
TIFF, 146
creating varlists, 69
toolbar, main, 26
dropping variables, 69
tooltip, 26
filtering variables, 68
tostring command, 94
keeping variables, 69
training, see Stata training
notes, 69–71
troubleshooting, 137–138
printing, 69
unexpected problem, 138
restore columns, 69
updates, see updates, troubleshooting
restore sort order, 68
ttest command, 15
right-clicking, 69
Twitter, 126, 129
toolbar button, 26
twoway line command, 21
Variable pane, 68–69
twoway scatter command, 17–19, 21
Variable Properties pane, 70
two-way table, see table, two-way
type command, 39
 [ GSW ] Subject index 153

Variables window, 2, 20, 25, 27–28, 32 windows (continued)

clicking, 27 opening, 125
columns, 27 preferences, 33
contextual menu, 28 resizing, 33
filtering, 28 revealing, 25
hiding, 28 splitters, 33
revealing, 28 tabbed, 32
varlist, 5, 23, 24, 83, 101 tabbing, 33
videos, see Stata videos types, 32
view command, 39 working directory, 32, 146
Viewer, 32, 35–39
Also see button, 42 Y
buttons, 35
color scheme, 125 YouTube videos, see Stata videos
commands, 39
contextual menu, 38
Dialog button, 42
Find bar, 36
fonts, 124
Jump to button, 42
links
clicking, 37
middle-clicking, 37
Shift+clicking, 37
log files, 122
navigating, 38
new window, 37
opening, 35
preferences, 38
printing, 38
printing log files, 122
right-clicking, 38
selecting one Viewer, 37
tabs, 38
toolbar button, 26, 35
viewing
current log, 37
logs, 37
remote files, 37
text files, 37

W
webinars, see Stata videos
windows, 25
Auto Hide, 34
closing, 125
docking, 32–33
docking guides, 33–34
fine control, 32
linked, 32
linking, 32–34
moving, 33
nondocking, 32, 34