Getting Started With Stata: For Mac Release 14

GETTING STARTED WITH STATA
R
FOR MAC
RELEASE 14
A Stata Press Publication

StataCorp LP
College Station, Texas
®
Copyright c 1985–2015 StataCorp LP
All rights reserved
Version 14
Published by Stata Press, 4905 Lakeway Drive, College Station, Texas 77845
Typeset in TEX
ISBN-10: 1-59718-153-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-59718-153-2
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StataCorp. 2015. Stata: Release 14 . Statistical Software. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP.
Contents
1 Introducing Stata—sample session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 The Stata user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3 Using the Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4 Getting help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5 Opening and saving Stata datasets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6 Using the Data Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7 Using the Variables Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
8 Importing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9 Labeling data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
10 Listing data and basic command syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
11 Creating new variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
12 Deleting variables and observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
14 Graphing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
15 Editing graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
16 Saving and printing results by using logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
17 Setting font and window preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
18 Learning more about Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
A Troubleshooting Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
B Advanced Stata usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
C More on Stata for Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Subject index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
i
Cross-referencing the documentation
When reading this manual, you will find references to other Stata manuals. For example,
[U] 26 Overview of Stata estimation commands
[R] regress
[D] reshape
The first example is a reference to chapter 26, 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
[BAYES] Stata Bayesian Analysis Reference Manual
[D] Stata Data Management Reference Manual
[FN] Stata Functions Reference Manual
[G] Stata Graphics Reference Manual
[IRT] Stata Item Response Theory Reference Manual
[XT] Stata Longitudinal-Data/Panel-Data Reference Manual
[ME] Stata Multilevel Mixed-Effects Reference Manual
[MI] Stata Multiple-Imputation Reference Manual
[MV] Stata Multivariate Statistics Reference Manual
[PSS] Stata Power and Sample-Size Reference Manual
[P] Stata Programming Reference Manual
[SEM] Stata Structural Equation Modeling Reference Manual
[SVY] Stata Survey Data Reference Manual
[ST] Stata Survival Analysis Reference Manual
[TS] Stata Time-Series Reference Manual
[TE] Stata Treatment-Effects Reference Manual:
Potential Outcomes/Counterfactual Outcomes
[I] Stata Glossary and Index
[M] Mata Reference Manual
iii
About this manual
This manual discusses Stata for Mac R
. Stata for Windows R
users should see Getting Started

R
with Stata for Windows; Stata for Unix 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 Mac. Previous Stata users will also find it helpful as a tutorial on some new features
in Stata for Mac.
Following the numbered chapters are three appendixes with information specific to Stata for Mac.
We provide several types of technical support to registered Stata users. [GSM] 4 Getting help
describes the resources available to help you learn about Stata’s commands and features. One of these
resources is the Stata website (http://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 [GSM] 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.
Notational conventions
The preferences for Stata are located under the Application menu, as is common for applications in
Mac OS X. The name of this menu, however, depends on what flavor of Stata you have installed: it could
be Stata/MP 14.0, Stata/SE 14.0, Stata/IC 14.0, or smStata 14.0. Throughout this documentation,
we will call it Stata. Thus, we will say that Preferences can be found at Stata > Preferences, though
the exact name of the top-level menu may be slightly different.
You will see many references to right-clicking in this manual. If you have a one-button mouse,
the equivalent action is a Control+click.
v
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 auto dataset, which is included with Stata. To use the menus,
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 Review window to the left. The
Review window keeps track of all commands Stata has run, successful and unsuccessful. The
commands can then easily be rerun. See [GSM] 2 The Stata user interface for more information.
• A series of variables appears in the small Variables window to the upper right.
1
2 [ GSM ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session
You could have opened the dataset by typing sysuse auto in the Command window and pressing
Return. 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 Browser button, , or by selecting Data > Data Editor > Data Editor
(Browse) from the menus or by typing the command browse.
Syntax note: Here the command is browse and there are no other arguments.
When the Data Editor opens, you can see that Stata regards the data as one rectangular table. 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.
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.
[ GSM ] 1 Introducing Stata—sample session 3
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 Return. Regardless of which
method you choose, you will get the same result:

. describe
Contains data from /Applications/Stata/ado/base/a/auto.dta
obs: 74 1978 Automobile Data
vars: 12 13 Apr 2014 17:45
size: 3,182 (_dta has notes)
storage display value

variable 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 type
Sorted by: foreign

If your listing stops short, and you see a blue more at the base of the Results window, pressing
the Spacebar or clicking on the blue more itself will allow the command to be completed.
At the top of the listing, some information is given about the dataset, such as where it is stored on
disk, how much memory it occupies, and when the data were 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

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 even 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 [GSM] 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 Return. 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.
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 Return or navigate the menus to Data > Describe data > Describe data contents (codebook)
and click on OK. We get a large amount of output that is worth investigating. In fact, we get more
output than can fit on one screen, as can be seen by the blue more at the bottom of the Results
window. Press the Spacebar a few times to get all the output to scroll past. (For more about more ,
see More in [GSM] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax.) 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 Return.
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.
Looking at the foreign variable can teach us about value labels. We would like to look at the
codebook 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 Return key) to get the following output:

. codebook foreign
foreign Car type
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] 25 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 [GSM] 6 Using
the Data Editor and see [GSM] 9 Labeling data.) This variable has five missing values, meaning
that there are 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. If you recall, the command brought up by clicking on the Data
Browser button was 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.
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 [GSM] 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 >
Summary 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.

. 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 Browser 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:
Pressing the Apply filter button filters the data, and we can see that the expensive cars are two
Cadillacs 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 type 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.
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.
Here is the resulting output:

. tabulate rep78 foreign, row
Key
frequency
row percentage
Repair
Record Car type
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.
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
mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34

. summarize mpg if foreign==1
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 >
Summary 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.
You can see that the results match those from above. They have a better appearance than the two
commands 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

mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34
-> foreign = Foreign

mpg 22 24.77273 6.611187 14 41

Syntax note: There is something different about the equivalent command that appears above: it contains
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
important 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] 27.2 The by construct 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 type 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.
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

Ho: 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.
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
submitting 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 13, a simple by foreign, sort: prefix in front of
our previous command would work, too:

. by foreign, sort: correlate mpg weight

(obs=52)
mpg weight
mpg 1.0000
weight -0.8759 1.0000

(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.
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)

The command issued when the dialog was submitted is a bit more complex than the command
suggested 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
40 30
Mileage (mpg)
20
10
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

Weight (lbs.)
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
window. 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 [GSM] 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 sheet you used to define the scatterplot 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.
The command and the associated graph are

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

Domestic Foreign
40
30
20
Mileage (mpg)
10
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Total
40
30
20
10
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

Weight (lbs.)
Graphs by Car type
The graphs show that the relationship is nonlinear for both types 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 +
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

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 Coef. 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 types 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
specified, 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
calculating predicted values. Be sure to read [U] 20 Estimation and postestimation commands.
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.
Here are the resulting command and graph:

. twoway (scatter mpg weight) (line mpghat weight, sort), by(foreign)

Domestic Foreign
40
30
20
10
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

Weight (lbs.)
Mileage (mpg) Fitted values
Graphs by Car type
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 > Graph (Graph).
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
scatterplot. 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)

Domestic Foreign
8
6
4
Gallons per 100 miles
2
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
Total
8
6
4
2
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

Weight (lbs.)
Graphs by Car type
Sadly satisfied that the engineer is indeed correct, we rerun the regression:

. regress gp100m weight foreign
F(2, 71) = 113.97
Model 91.1761694 2 45.5880847 Prob > F = 0.0000
Residual 28.4000913 71 .400001287 R-squared = 0.7625
Total 119.576261 73 1.63803097 Root MSE = .63246
gp100m Coef. 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
commands 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 [GSM] 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.
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
[GSM] 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.
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.
The five main windows are the Review, Results, Command, Variables, and Properties windows.
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 Mission Control to
reveal hidden windows, or use Command–` (left quote) to cycle through all open Stata windows.
Many of Stata’s windows have functionality that can be accessed by clicking on the right mouse
button (right-clicking) within the window. If your mouse has only one button, press the Control key
while pressing the mouse button to simulate a right-click. 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.
24
[ GSM ] 2 The Stata user interface 25
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 hold down the mouse button.
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. Hold down the button to select a dataset from a menu of recently
opened datasets.
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
[GSM] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs for an explanation of log
files. You can also choose a file to view in the Viewer.
Viewer opens the Viewer or brings a Viewer to the front of all other windows.
Click on the button to open a new Viewer tab. See [GSM] 3 Using the Viewer
for more information.
Graph brings the Graph window to the front of all other windows. Click on the
button to bring the topmost Graph window to the front. Click and hold to select
a graph to bring to the front. See The Graph button in [GSM] 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
and hold to select a Do-file Editor to bring to the front. See [GSM] 13 Using
the Do-file Editor—automating Stata for more information.
Data Editor opens the Data Editor or brings the Data Editor to the front
of the other Stata windows. See [GSM] 6 Using the Data Editor for more
information.
Data Browser opens the Data Editor in browse mode. See Browse mode in
[GSM] 6 Using the Data Editor for more information.
More tells Stata to continue when it has paused in the middle of long output.
See [GSM] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax for more information.
Break stops the current task in Stata. See [GSM] 10 Listing data and basic
command syntax for more information.
Search Help Searches for help for both official and user-written commands.
See [GSM] 4 Getting help for more information.
26 [ GSM ] 2 The Stata user interface
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, and variable-name
completion. The Command window also uses the same syntax highlighting as the Do-file Editor. See
[GSM] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata for more information.
From the Command window, pressing
Page Up steps backward through the command history.
Page Down steps forward through the command history.
Tab auto-completes a partially typed variable name, when possible.
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. While 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 toggle its visibility by clicking the magnifying glass button, , in the Results
window title bar.
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 Review window

The Review window shows the history of commands that have been entered. It displays successful
commands in black and unsuccessful commands, along with their error codes, in red.
At the base of the Review window is a text entry field that filters the commands appearing in the
Review window. By default, the filter ignores case and finds any commands containing any of the
words in the filter. Clicking on the arrow by the magnifying glass allows you to change this behavior.
You can hide the commands that produced an error by clicking on the arrow and selecting the Hide
Errors item from the list that appears.
No commands are deleted by using these tools—all that is affected is their visibility.
To enter a command from the Review 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 Review window.
Right-clicking on the Review window displays a menu from which you can select various actions:
• Cut removes the selected commands from the Review window and places them on the Clipboard.
• Copy copies the selected commands to the Clipboard.
• Delete removes the selected commands from the Review window.
• Select all selects all the commands in the Review window, including those before and after the
commands currently displayed.
• Clear all clears out all the commands from the Review 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
window.
• Save all... brings up a Save Review Contents dialog, which allows you to save all the commands
in the Review window, including those before and after the commands currently displayed, in
a do-file. (See [GSM] 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 Review window in a do-file.
• Preferences... allows you to edit the preferences for the Review window.
The Variables window

The Variables window shows the list of variables in the dataset, along with selected 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 Command -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. If multiple variables are selected, double-clicking on any selected
variable will put all the selected variables 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 Variables window supports filtering and reordering of variables. Text entered in the entry field
to the right of the magnifying glass 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 arrow by the magnifying glass will allow you
to change this behavior.
You can reorder 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 variable varname (or Keep only selected variables if multiple variables are
selected) 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 [GSM] 12 Deleting variables and observations for more information.
• Drop variable varname (or Drop selected variables if multiple variables are selected) 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 [GSM] 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.
• Preferences... to change the preferences for the Variables window.
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, grab the divider between the Variables window
and the Results window and drag it all the way to the right. This is like resizing the Variables window
to have zero width. Hiding the Variables window will also hide the Properties window.
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.
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 the disclosure control at the base of the Variables
window. If you would like to reveal a hidden Properties window, click on the disclosure control
at the base of the Variables window.
You should also investigate the Variables Manager, explained in [GSM] 7 Using the Variables
Manager, because it extends these capabilities and provides a good interface for managing variables.
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
[GSM] 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
command 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
dependent 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 clicking 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.
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 red 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. Clicking 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 Review 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 [GSM] 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.
The working directory

If you look at the screenshot on page 24, you will notice the status bar at the base of the main
Stata window that contains a clickable path control. Each item in the control is clickable and shows
other files and folders at the same level of the file hierarchy when clicked. This can be useful for
quickly changing working directories or for finding datasets, do-files, graphs, log files or other Stata
files. 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.
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 user-written commands; 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
commands that the Viewer understands. There is more information about using the Viewer to find
help in [GSM] 4 Getting help and for installing user-written commands in [GSM] 19 Updating and
extending Stata—Internet functionality.
To open a new Viewer window, (or open a new tab in an existing Viewer), you may either click
on the Viewer button, , or select Window > Viewer > New Viewer. A Viewer opened by these
means provides links that allow you to perform several tasks.
32
[ GSM ] 3 Using the Viewer 33
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, assuming

you backtracked.
Reload page refreshes the Viewer, in case you are viewing some-
thing that has changed since you opened the Viewer.
Print prints the contents of the Viewer.
Find opens the find bar at the bottom of the Viewer (see below).
Search Chooses the scope of help searches in the Viewer.
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 button (see above):
The Find bar has its own buttons, fields, and checkboxes.
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 automatically
wraps past the end of the Viewer document if there are no further
instances of the search text.
Find is the field for entering the search text you would like to
find. You can change the search options by clicking on the down
arrow near the magnifying glass.
Done closes the find bar.
Viewer’s function
The Viewer is similar to a web browser. It has links (shown in blue text) 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 (if you
do not have a three-button mouse, then Shift–clicking) will open the link in a new Viewer window.
Command –clicking will open the link in a new tab in the current Viewer window.
You can open a new Viewer by selecting Window > Viewer > New Viewer or by clicking on the
Viewer button on the toolbar. Entering a help command from the Command window will also open
a new Viewer.
34 [ GSM ] 3 Using the 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 windows.
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 Control Language (SMCL) files such as those typically produced when logging your work (see
[GSM] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs) as well as plain-text files. To open a file and
view its contents, simply select File > View..., 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 [GSM] 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
http://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.
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 and hold the Print toolbar button to select from a menu
of open windows to print.
[ GSM ] 3 Using the Viewer 35
Tabs in the Viewer

The 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 off the tab bar, you will create a new Viewer
window to hold the tab. You can also drag tabs from one Viewer window to another. If you drag the
last tab from a Viewer into another Viewer, the original Viewer window will close. In this way, you
can combine Viewer windows.
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.
• Print... to print the contents of the Viewer window.
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 Return. For more extensive information about using the Viewer
for help, see [GSM] 4 Getting help.
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 [GSM] 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.
• searching (see [GSM] 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 User-written commands (see [GSM] 4 Getting help and [GSM] 19 Updating
and extending Stata—Internet functionality):
Type net from http://www.stata.com/ to find and install Stata Journal, Stata Technical
Bulletin, and user-written commands from the Internet.
Type ado to review user-written packages you have installed.
Type ado uninstall to uninstall user-written 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.
36 [ GSM ] 3 Using the Viewer
• viewing files in the Results window:

Type type filename.smcl in the Command window to view SMCL files in the Results
window.
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
window.
• launching your browser to view an HTML file:
Type browse URL to launch your browser.
• keeping informed:
Type news to see the latest news from http://www.stata.com.
Using the Viewer from the Command window

Typing help commandname in the Command window will bring up a new Viewer showing the
requested 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 user-written
commands.
2. Read through the results. If you find a useful command, click on the link to the appropriate
command 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
documentation, 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 user-written commands, whether they are from the Stata Journal
or elsewhere; see [GSM] 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 [GSM] 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 [GSM] 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 Return. Before we
press Return, the window should look like
37
38 [ GSM ] 4 Getting help
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 user-written commands. Here is the result:
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
[ GSM ] 4 Getting help 39
Data Management Reference Manual. The blue 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 blue 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 very first link in the Title section is a link to the manual entry for the command in
the PDF documentation. Clicking on the link will open your PDF viewer and show you
the complete documentation for the command—in this case, codebook.
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 [GSM] 10 Listing data
and basic command syntax.
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:
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 user-written commands.
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
command... and type the command name. You can also type the command name in the Search field
at the top of the Viewer and press Return.
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
Return.
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
commandname. The help file for the command appears in a new Viewer tab.
• 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 tab.
• 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 manuals
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.
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 Glossary and 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
commands.
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] #delimit, which is a reference to the
Programming Reference Manual, and [U] 9 The Break key, 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 [GSM] 18 Learning more about Stata, or
see [U] 1.2 The User’s Guide and the Reference manuals.
Stata videos
The Stata YouTube channel is an excellent resource for learning about Stata. The brief videos
demonstrate many topics using Stata’s graphical user interface. They cover basic topics, such as
data management, 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 http://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 http://www.stata-journal.com for more information. There you may browse the archive, subscribe,
order PDF copies of individual articles, and view at no charge copies of articles older than three years.
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 to all Stata users. See [R] net and [R] sj for more information.
Because the Stata Journal has had several articles about meta-analysis, if you select Help >
Search..., choose Search documentation and FAQs, type meta analysis, and scroll down a bit, you
will see some of these references:
SJ-14-1 refers to volume 14, number 1 of the Stata Journal. This is an example of a Stata Journal
article that describes a new user-written command. The command can be downloaded and installed
to extend the abilities of Stata. See Downloading user-written commands in [GSM] 19 Updating and
extending Stata—Internet functionality for more information.
SJ-13-3 refers to volume 13, number 3 of the Stata Journal. This is an example of a package
containing multiple user-written commands.
Clicking on an SJ link, such as SJ 13(3):451--473, will open a browser and take you to the
Stata Journal website, where you can download abstracts and articles. The Stata Journal website
allows all articles older than three years to be downloaded for free. Links to other sites where
you can freely download programs and datasets for Stata can be found on the Stata website; see
http://www.stata.com/links/. See Downloading user-written commands in [GSM] 19 Updating and
extending Stata—Internet functionality for more details on how to install this 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.
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 open and in use at any one time. It is
possible to have many Viewers viewing many files, but only one dataset may be in use at any time.
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 recent > 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
directories 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
documentation of the logistic command. For more information, see [D] webuse.
Because Stata has at most one dataset open at a time, opening a dataset will cause Stata to discard
the dataset that is currently in memory. If there have been changes to the data in the currently open
dataset, 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; data in memory would be lost
r(4);

These behaviors protect you from mistakenly losing data.
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 Format pop-up menu; or
2. type saveold filename in the Command window.
44
[ GSM ] 5 Opening and saving Stata datasets 45
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.
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
properties: 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.
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 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: Changes the Data Editor to edit mode.
Browse: Changes the Data Editor to browse mode for safely looking at data.
Filter: Filters the observations visible in the Data Editor. This button is useful for looking
at a subset of the current dataset.
Variables: Toggles the visibility of the Variables and Properties windows.
Properties: Toggles the visibility of the Properties window.
Snapshots: Opens the Snapshots window. See Working with snapshots below.
46
[ GSM ] 6 Using the Data Editor 47
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 Return or the down arrow key.
• To move up, use Shift–Return 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 which opens 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 and displaying value labels.
• 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
numbers 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
variable to a numeric variable while still displaying the categories in tables and graphs.
• Decode labeled numeric variable to string... for turning an encoded variable back into
a string variable.
• 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.
• Print... to print the data.
48 [ GSM ] 6 Using 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 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.
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
Return between each make of car until all seven observations were entered, skipping past the missing
entry by pressing Return 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
are displayed in red, value labels (see [GSM] 9 Labeling data) are displayed in blue, and all
other values are displayed in black. 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.
• 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 Return 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 or click outside the cell.
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
overwrite the name.
2. Double-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.
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, either click on the variable in the Variables window or use
the navigation arrows in the Properties window until the variable’s name appears. 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.
• 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 [GSM] 9 Labeling data; for display
formats, see [U] 12.5 Formats: Controlling how data are displayed.
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 clicking on the top left cell of the area to which you wish
to paste. Then right-click on the same cell, 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 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 [GSM] 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, right-click in the Data Editor and select Data > Value labels
> Hide 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 auto 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 data in memory would be lost. This is good—Stata is keeping
you from inadvertently throwing away the unsaved changes to your current data as it loads the auto
dataset. 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
Return to clear out the data, and then load that auto data.
Once the auto dataset is loaded, start the Data Editor.
1. We remember that our grandfather had a Toronado, which looked sleek, but which 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 > Find..., type Toronado, and press Return. 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.
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 Return 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:
• 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 sheet.
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 Add button 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 double
arrows 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.
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
dialog, 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 Review window. If you wanted to save the editing
commands to use again later, you could do the following steps:
1. Click in the Review 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 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 [GSM] 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... 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 quit 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.
We will keep using the auto dataset 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 [GSM] 5 Opening and saving Stata
datasets for more information.) If we open the Data Editor and click on the Snapshots button, ,
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 Return. 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 quit 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.
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, 07apr2009.
4. There are many premade date formats in the Samples pane at the top right of the Create format
dialog. Click on April 7, 2009. 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 date mask field, which shows DMY. This field affects how dates are entered when
editing data.
By default, the date mask is set to DMY. This means dates can be entered in many different fashions,
as long as the order of the day, month, year 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 18jan2013 and press the Return key. Stata understands the DMY date mask and knows
enough to enter the new date in the selected cell.
3. Enter 30042014 and press Return. Stata still understands the date mask, even though there are
no separators.
4. Click within the date mask field, and choose MDY from the drop-down menu.
5. Click on any observation in the date column.
6. Type March 15, 2015 and press Return. 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 Return.
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 [GSM] 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 auto 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.
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 search 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 arrow by the magnifying glass
will allow you to change this behavior. 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 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.
([GSM] 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 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
. 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 Browser
button, , 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 Variable 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.
7 Using the Variables Manager
The Variables Manager

This chapter discusses Stata’s Variables Manager. You open the Variables Manager by selecting
Data > Variables Manager.
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. A third click on the same column will restore the original dataset order.
61
62 [ GSM ] 7 Using the Variables Manager
The sort order affects only how the data appear in the Variable Managers window—the dataset
itself stays the same.
• 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.
Right-clicking on the Variable pane

Right-clicking on the Variable pane displays a menu from which you can do many common tasks:
• 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.
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 [GSM] 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.
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:
[ GSM ] 7 Using the Variables Manager 63
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
applications 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 data from the PDF documentation the way you would copy anything from any document.
(For best results, use Adobe Reader.)
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
formatting 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.
64
[ GSM ] 8 Importing data 65
Stata has various commands for importing data. The three main commands for reading non–Stata
datasets in text are
• import delimited, which is made for reading text files created by spreadsheet or database
programs 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 sasxport command can read any SAS XPORT file, so data can be transferred from
SAS to Stata in this fashion.
• The odbc command can be used to pull data directly from any data sources for which you
have ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) drivers.
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 specially developed to read in text files that were created
by spreadsheet 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. 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.

. clear
. import delimited "a few cars.csv"
(5 vars, 7 obs)

66 [ GSM ] 8 Importing data
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 file name.

. import delimited make price mpg weight gear_ratio using "a few cars.csv"
(5 vars, 7 obs)
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.
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

[ GSM ] 8 Importing data 67
For more information on the ~ abbreviation and on list, see [GSM] 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 Return 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 import
excel in [D] import excel for full details.
The import sasxport command can read and create SAS XPORT Transport files. See [D] import
sasxport 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 FAQ for setting up ODBC is also
helpful; read it at http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data/odbcmu.html.
Here is a brief summary of the choices:
• If you have a table, you could try copying it and pasting it into the Data Editor.
• If you have a Microsoft Excel .xls or .xlsx file, use import excel.
• 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 SAS XPORT file, use import sasxport.
• If you have a database accessible with ODBC, use odbc.
• If you subscribe to any Haver Analytics databases, use import haver.
• Finally, you can purchase a transfer program that will convert the other software’s data file
format to Stata’s data file format. See [U] 21.4 Transfer programs.
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 [GSM] 8 Importing data, we saved a dataset
called afewcars.dta. We will put this dataset into a shape that a colleague would understand. Let’s
see what it contains.

. use afewcars
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 [GSM] 1 Introducing
Stata—sample session).
68
[ GSM ] 9 Labeling data 69

. describe
Contains data from afewcars.dta
obs: 7
vars: 5 3 Feb 2015 12:22
size: 238

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. For integers:
byte for integers between −127 and 100 (using 1 byte of memory per observation)
int for integers between −32,767 and 32,740 (using 2 bytes of memory per observation)
long for integers between −2,147,483,647 and 2,147,483,620 (using 4 bytes of memory
per observation)
b. For real numbers:
float for real numbers with 8.5 digits of precision (using 4 bytes of memory per
observation)
double for real numbers with 16.5 digits of precision (using 8 bytes of memory per
observation)
c. 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 one-byte-long strings
str2 for two-byte-long strings
str3 for three-byte-long strings
...
str2045 for 2,045-byte-long strings
d. 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 would like to make this dataset into something containing all the information we need.
70 [ GSM ] 9 Labeling data
To see what a well-labeled dataset looks like, we can look at a dataset stored at the Stata Press
repository. 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 [GSM] 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 http://www.stata-press.com/data/r14/auto
Contains data 1978 Automobile Data
obs: 74 13 Apr 2014 17:45
vars: 12
size: 3,478

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 type
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, or by using the label data command.
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. When doing this in the main window, be sure that
the Properties window is unlocked. 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 [GSM] 6 Using the
Data Editor), 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 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 [GSM] 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
obs: 7
vars: 5 3 Feb 2015 12:22
size: 238

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
obs: 7 A few 1978 cars
vars: 5 3 Feb 2015 12:22
size: 238

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:
. save afewcars2
file afewcars2.dta saved

72 [ GSM ] 9 Labeling data
Warning: When you change or define labels on a dataset in memory, it is worth saving the dataset
right away. Because the actual data in the dataset did not change, Stata will not prevent you from
quitting or loading a new dataset later, and you could lose your labels.
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 up the Data Editor and use your previously
gained knowledge to add a foreign variable whose values match what is shown in this listing:

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 [GSM] 6 Using
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 [GSM] 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
obs: 7 A few 1978 cars
vars: 6 3 Feb 2015 12:22
size: 245

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

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 [GSM] 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 Renaming and formatting variables in [GSM] 6 Using the Data Editor and Managing notes in
[GSM] 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
appearance 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 [GSM] 6 Using the Data Editor.
c. in is optional. The in qualifier restricts the command to run on particular observation
numbers.
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.
list with a variable list

Variable lists (or varlists) can be specified in a variety of ways, all designed to save typing and
encourage 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.
74
[ GSM ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax 75
• 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.

. list
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

76 [ GSM ] 10 Listing data and basic command syntax

. 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
arithmetic). 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.

. list

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. list if mpg > 22

5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. list if (mpg > 22) & !missing(mpg)

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 [GSM] 6 Using the Data Editor.
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

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign

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
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);

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
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"
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 [GSM] 9 Labeling
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.
There is a second construction that also allows the use of the value label directly.

. list if foreign==0
2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic

4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
. list if foreign=="domestic":origin
2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic

4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic

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

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. list in 1
. list in -1
7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. list in 2/4
2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic

4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
. list in -3/-2
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign


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
characters to abbreviate a variable name in the output. divider draws a vertical line between the
variables in the list.

. sort foreign
. list ma p g f, sepby(foreign)
make price gear_r~o foreign
1. Olds 98 8814 2.41 domestic

2. Buick Regal 5189 2.93 domestic
3. 4099 3.58 domestic
4. Chev. Monza 3667 2.73 domestic
5. Datsun 810 8129 3.55 foreign

6. Datsun 510 5079 3.54 foreign
7. VW Rabbit 4697 3.78 foreign
. list make weight gear, abbreviate(10)
make weight gear_ratio
1. Olds 98 4060 2.41

2. Buick Regal 3280 2.93
3. 2930 3.58
4. Chev. Monza 2750 2.73
5. Datsun 810 2750 3.55
6. Datsun 510 2280 3.54

7. VW Rabbit 1930 3.78
. list, divider
1. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic

3. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
5. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
6. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign


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

1. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic

3. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic

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

More
When you see a more prompt at the bottom of the Results window, it means that there is more
information to be displayed. 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 blue more at the bottom of the Results window.
To see just the next line of text, press Return.
Break
If you want to interrupt a Stata command, click on the Break button, . If you see a more
prompt at the bottom of the Results window and wish to interrupt it, click on the Break button or
press q.

. 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
Break
r(1);

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 [GSM] 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
expression is a formula made up of constants, existing variables, operators, and functions. Some
examples of expressions (using variables from the auto dataset) 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
observations. 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.
84
[ GSM ] 11 Creating new variables 85
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
created in Labeling values of variables in [GSM] 9 Labeling data. (To work along, start by opening
the auto 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.
86 [ GSM ] 11 Creating new variables

. 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

replace
Whereas generate is used to create new variables, replace is the command used for existing
variables. 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 command 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%.
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
. replace predprice = 1.10*price if foreign==1
. 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

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

. replace where = "F" if foreign=="foreign":origin
. 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
where str1 %9s

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
manufactured:

. gen model = substr(make, strpos(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. strpos(s1 ,s2 ) produces an integer equal to the first position in the string s1 at which the
string s2 is found or 0 if it is not found. In this example, strpos(make," ") finds the position
of the first space in each observation of make.
2. substr(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: substr(s,strpos(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 contain Unicode characters, there are some special functions and facilities you
should use. 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 [GSM] 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 alters 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.
91
92 [ GSM ] 12 Deleting variables and observations
We will use the afewcarslab dataset to illustrate drop:

. use afewcarslab
(A few 1978 cars)
. list

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. drop in 1/3
(3 observations deleted)
. list
1. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic

2. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign
4. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. drop if mpg > 21

. list
. 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.
[ GSM ] 12 Deleting variables and observations 93
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

2. Olds 98 8814 21 4060 2.41 domestic
4. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic
5. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign

7. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. keep in 4/7
. list
1. 4099 22 2930 3.58 domestic

2. Datsun 510 5079 24 2280 3.54 foreign
4. Datsun 810 8129 . 2750 3.55 foreign
. keep if mpg <= 21

. list
. 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 Return.
The Do-file Editor toolbar

The Do-file Editor has seven 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.
Open: Open a do-file from disk in a new tab in the Do-file Editor.
Save: Save the current do-file to disk.
Print: Print the contents of the Do-file Editor.
Find: Open the Find dialog for finding text.
Show: Toggle display of invisible characters.
Zoom: Change the display size of the text.
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.
94
[ GSM ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata 95
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 [GSM] 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
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 right-clicking in the Do-file Editor, selecting Preferences... and then clicking on the
Syntax highlighting tab in the resulting window.
Click on the Do button, , to execute the commands. Stata executes the commands in sequence,
and the results appear in the Results window:
96 [ GSM ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata

. do /tmp/SD00001.000000
. * an example do-file
. sysuse auto
. label var gp100m "Gallons per 100 miles"
. regress gp100m weight foreing
variable foreing not found
r(111);
.
end of do-file

The do "/tmp/. . . " command is how Stata executes the commands in the Do-file Editor. Stata
saves the commands 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:
We 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 /tmp/SD00001.000000
. sysuse auto
no; data in memory would be lost
r(4);
.
end of do-file

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

. do /tmp/SD00001.000000
. sysuse auto, clear
. label var gp100m "Gallons per 100 miles"
. regress gp100m weight foreign
F( 2, 71) = 113.97
Model 91.1761694 2 45.5880847 Prob > F = 0.0000
Residual 28.4000913 71 .400001287 R-squared = 0.7625
Total 119.576261 73 1.63803097 Root MSE = .63246
gp100m Coef. 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 while the Do-file Editor is in front.
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

When the Do-file Editor is in front, the File menu’s items apply to do-files. 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.
98 [ GSM ] 13 Using the Do-file Editor—automating Stata
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, and
Find 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 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.
– Make selection uppercase converts the selection to all capital letters.
– Make selection lowercase converts the selection to all lowercase letters.
– Show whitespace displays space and tab characters.
– Show end of lines displays line endings.
– Wrap lines wraps long lines while keeping the proper line numbers.
– Convert line endings to Mac OS X/Unix format (\n) converts the line endings for the
current file to Mac OS X/Unix format.
– Convert line endings to Windows format (\r\n) converts the line endings for the current
file to Windows format.
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 menu item will be inactive.
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 characters. If you select Balance braces again, the editor will expand the selection to
include the next level of matching characters. If there is no match, the cursor will not move. Balancing
braces is useful for working with complicated expressions or 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).
Editing tip: You can split the Do-file Editor window vertically by clicking on the Split window
button . This is useful for looking at two widely separated places in a file at the same time. To
go back to a single pane view, click on the close button in either of the split panes.
The View > Do-file Editor menu

You have already learned about the Do button. Selecting View > Do-file Editor > Execute (do)
is equivalent to clicking on the Execute (do) button.
Selecting View > Do-file Editor > 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.
Do is equivalent to Stata’s do command; see [U] 16 Do-files for a complete discussion.
You can also preview files in the Viewer by selecting View > Do-file Editor > Show file in Viewer.
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 Review 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 [GSM] 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.
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.
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 [GSM] 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 auto 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 Return.
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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[ GSM ] 14 Graphing data 101
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: 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 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.
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.
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 toolbar. Clicking on the button brings the topmost
Graph window to the front of all other windows. Hold down the button to select a Graph window to
bring it 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 auto 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.
Select any of the tools along the bottom left of the Graph Editor window to edit the graph. The
Pointer (Select Tool), , is selected by default.
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[ GSM ] 15 Editing graphs 103
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.
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 Graph Editor toolbar that runs along the bottom of
the window. 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
accommodate 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 Record 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 button,
. You can click on the Pause button again to resume recording. When you are done with your
recording, click on the Record button. You will be prompted to save your recording. Any recording
you save is available from the Play 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).
104 [ GSM ] 15 Editing graphs
• 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.
• 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 notebook 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, . Choose Begin... from the drop-down menu to
start a new log file. Choose Append... if you want to add more Stata output to an existing log file.
Both choices 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.
105
106 [ GSM ] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs
Here is an example of a short session:

name: <unnamed>
log: /Users/mydir/Documents/base.smcl
log type: smcl
opened on: 4 Feb 2015, 23:36:17
. sysuse auto
. by foreign, sort: summarize price mpg

price 52 6072.423 3097.104 3291 15906

mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34

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: /Users/mydir/Documents/base.smcl
log type: smcl
closed on: 4 Feb 2015, 23:37:41

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
asterisk, 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 quit 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.
[ GSM ] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs 107
Working with logs

Log files are best viewed using Stata’s Viewer. There are two ways to open a Viewer window:
• Click on the Log button, and select View....
• 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 Monaco, 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 [GSM] 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. If you do not see the details in the Print dialog, click the
Show Details button.
• You can fill in none of, any of, or all the items Header, User, and Project. You can check or
uncheck options to Print header and footer, Print line numbers, and Print logo. These items are
saved and will appear again in the print sheet (in this and in future Stata sessions).
• You can set the font size and color scheme the printer will use by clicking on the Stata Headers and
Footers drop-down menu and choosing Stata Fonts and Colors. 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 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
TextEdit, 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 or Helvetica). It will look much better
printed in a fixed-width font (for example, Monaco or Courier New).
108 [ GSM ] 16 Saving and printing results by using logs
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 Review window. The Review window stores the last 5,000 commands
you have typed. Simply right-click on the Review 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
Review window in [GSM] 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 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 [GSM] 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/PDF 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 Preferences... from the contextual menu. Doing so will bring up the Windows
Preferences dialog, from which you can pick the font and size of your choice. The font lists for each
of the Results, Viewer, Data Editor, 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

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 six other built-in schemes and three settings for custom schemes. The settings
for the Viewer affect all Viewer windows at once.
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110 [ GSM ] 17 Setting font and window preferences
Managing multiple sets of preferences

Stata’s preferences are automatically saved when you quit 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 Stata > Preferences > Manage preferences menu, and do any
of the following:
• Select Manage preferences... to open the Saved preferences window from which you can open,
replace, or delete an existing preference set.
• Select Save Preferences... to save the current window arrangement and preferences. If you save
your preferences, they will appear in the Stata > Preferences > Manage preferences menu
the next time you view it.
• Select Factory settings to restore all preferences to their original settings.
• Select Factory window settings to restore only the windowing preferences to their original
settings.
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 Glossary and 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 references, 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 14 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
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/.
• There are many useful links to Stata resources at http://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 official Stata blog Not Elsewhere Classified to read articles written by people at Stata
about all things Stata. You can find the Stata blog at http://blog.stata.com.
• Visit Stata on Facebook at http://facebook.com/statacorp,
join Stata on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/+stata,
find Stata on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/statacorp,
and follow Stata on Twitter at http://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
http://www.stata-journal.com.
111
112 [ GSM ] 18 Learning more about Stata
• Many supplementary books about Stata are available. Visit the Stata bookstore at
http://www.stata.com/bookstore/.
• Take a Stata NetCourse R
. NetCourse 101 is an excellent choice for learning about Stata. See
http://www.stata.com/netcourse/ for course information and schedules.
• Attend a public training course taught by StataCorp at third-party sites. Visit
http://www.stata.com/training/public for course information and schedules.
• Watch Stata videos at http://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] 21 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
Graphics
[G] Stata Graphics Reference Manual
Useful features that you might overlook

[U] 28 Using the Internet to keep up to date
[U] 16 Do-files
[U] 19 Immediate commands
[U] 23 Working with strings
[U] 24 Working with dates and times
[U] 25 Working with categorical data and factor variables
[U] 13.5 Accessing coefficients and standard errors
[U] 13.6 Accessing results from Stata commands
[U] 26 Overview of Stata estimation commands
[U] 20 Estimation and postestimation commands
[R] estimates — Save and manipulate estimation results
[ GSM ] 18 Learning more about Stata 113
Basic statistics
[R] anova — Analysis of variance and covariance
[R] ci — Confidence intervals for means, proportions, and counts
[R] correlate — Correlations (covariances) of variables or coefficients
[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 — Flexible table of summary statistics
[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
Programming
[U] 16 Do-files
[U] 17 Ado-files
[U] 18 Programming Stata
[R] ml — Maximum likelihood estimation
[P] Stata Programming Reference Manual
System values
[R] set — Overview of system parameters
[P] creturn — Return c-class values
Internet resources
The Stata website (http://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 training
sessions. Visit the Stata website 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.
114 [ GSM ] 18 Learning more about Stata
Visit http://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 http://www.stata-journal.com to read about the Stata Journal, a quarterly publication
containing articles about statistics, data analysis, teaching methods, and effective use of Stata’s
language.
Visit Stata’s official blog at http://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 also has links to other blogs about Stata, written by
Stata users around the world.
Follow Stata on Facebook at http://facebook.com/statacorp, Twitter at http://twitter.com/stata,
Google+ at https://plus.google.com/+stata, and LinkedIn at
https://www.linkedin.com/company/statacorp. 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
http://www.youtube.com/user/statacorp.
See [GSM] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality for details on accessing
official 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 user-written commands, which are commands that extend Stata’s functionality.
These are commands that have been presented in the Stata Journal (SJ) or the Stata Technical Bulletin
(STB) 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 http://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
http://www.stata-press.com/data/r14/census12.dta. Because you know that the command for opening
a dataset is use, you could type the following:

. use http://www.stata-press.com/data/r14/census12.dta
(1980 Census data by state)
. describe
Contains data from http://www.stata-press.com/data/r14/census12.dta
obs: 50 1980 Census data by state
vars: 7 6 Apr 2014 15:43
size: 1,950

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 HTTP protocol for retrieving the file. Stata also understands the HTTPS and
FTP protocols.
115
116 [ GSM ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality
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 user-written additions published in the SJ, distributed over
Statalist, or distributed in other ways.
Stata can fetch both official updates and user-written 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 Stata > Preferences > General preferences...
and click on the Internet 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 Return. 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 /Applications/Stata, 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] 28 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 Stata > Preferences >
General preferences... and choosing Internet.
[ GSM ] 19 Updating and extending Stata—Internet functionality 117
Finding user-written commands by keyword

Stata has a built-in utility created specifically to search the Internet for user-written 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 user-written commands yields more specific choices
for searching. The utility searches all user-written commands on the Internet, including the entire
collection of SJ and STB 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 user-written commands

Downloading user-written commands is easy. Start by selecting Help > SJ and user-written
commands:
As the Viewer says, try Search... first.

Suppose that you were interested in finding more information or some user-written commands
involving cubic splines. You select Help > Search..., select Search all, type cubic spline in the
search box, and press Return.
The first entry points to the built-in Stata command mkspline. You investigate this command and
find it interesting. You see that the next two entries point to some built-in routines in Mata. You
follow these links because Mata is not only intriguing but also fast. You see that the next link points
to an FAQ on UCLA’s website. The next two links point to articles in the SJ. Finally, you decide to
check the second of these links. It points to an article in the SJ, volume 12, number 3 (third quarter,
2012). You should click on the sg151 2 link, because it will go to the commands associated with
this article.
You will see that the package has three help files for three new commands. Click the
sg151 2/bspline.sthlp link to see if the bspline 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.
You can keep the user-written commands you have installed up to date by using the adoupdate
command. Typing adoupdate will check for updates, while typing adoupdate, 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 user-written commands,
and click on the List link. You should see the following:
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 user-written commands by using the net command, see [R] net.
A Troubleshooting Stata
Contents
A.1 If Stata does not start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
A.2 Troubleshooting tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
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 Stata license, but the license does not apply to the
version of Stata that you are trying to run.
The most common reason for this message is that you have a license for Stata/IC but you are
trying to run Stata/SE or Stata/MP, or you have a license for Small Stata but you are trying to run
Stata/IC, Stata/SE, or Stata/MP. If any of these is the case, reinstall Stata, making sure to choose
the appropriate flavor.
You can’t open the application Stata because it is not supported on this architecture
You are trying to run Stata on a 32-bit computer. All flavors of Stata for Mac run only on 64-bit
computers.
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. You also could be trying to run Stata on Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier.
The minimum requirement for Stata is Mac OS X 10.7.
122
[ GSM ] A Troubleshooting Stata 123
A.2 Troubleshooting tips

Stata has a minimum requirement of a Mac computer running Mac OS X 10.7 or better.
If you experience a crash while launching Stata, open the Preferences folder in your home
directory’s Library folder. Trash the file com.stata.stata14.plist, and restart Stata. It is an
uncommon event, but the preference file can become corrupted by previous crashes caused by power
outages or by not shutting down your computer properly.
Also see the frequently asked questions (FAQs) for Mac on the Stata website at
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/mac. The solution to your problem may be there.
If you want us to help, we will need as much information as possible. Restart Stata and reproduce
the problem, writing down everything you do before the problem occurs.
Also tell us about your computer. What model Mac is it? What version of the system software are
you using? Click on Apple Menu > About This Mac, and then click on the More Info... button to
open the System Profiler application. You can generate a profile of your system that you can email to
us. 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 Executing commands every time Stata is started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
B.2 Other ways to launch Stata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
B.3 Stata batch mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
B.4 Changing Stata’s locale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
B.5 Memory size considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
B.1 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, and finally along the ado-path (see [P] sysdir). We recommend that
you put profile.do in /Users/yourhome/Library/Application Support/Stata.
Say that every time you start Stata, you would like to start a dated log for the session. In
/Users/yourhome/Library/Application Support/Stata, create the file profile.do containing
this rather odd-looking command (the command will be explained at the end of this session):
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 ~/Library/Application Support/Stata/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
datetime number Stata understands. See [D] datetime.
• 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 an extended macro
function. You can see more in [P] macro.
• The log using command starts a log file, such as shown in [GSM] 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!
124
[ GSM ] B Advanced Stata usage 125
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 "/Library/Application Support/Stata"
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.2 Other ways to launch Stata

You can start Stata by double-clicking on a Stata .dta dataset, a Stata .do do-file, or a Stata
.gph graph file. In all cases except for do-files, your current working directory will become the folder
containing the file you have double-clicked. Do-files opened for editing do not change your working
directory.
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 either in the Do-file Editor, or will execute
its commands.
If you would rather have Stata execute the commands in a do-file when it is double-clicked, select
Stata > Preferences > General Preferences..., click on the Windows toolbar button, click on the
Do-file Editor item, click on the Advanced tab, and uncheck the Edit do-files opened from the Finder
in Do-file Editor checkbox.
B.3 Stata batch mode

To run Stata in batch mode, you need to start it in the Terminal. The syntax of the command to
start Stata from in the Terminal is

StataSE -option -option . . . stata command
where the options are
Option 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
-s set background (batch) mode and log in SMCL
126 [ GSM ] B Advanced Stata usage
The -q option starts Stata, but suppresses all the initialization messages, including the Stata logo.
For you to run Stata from the Terminal, you need to be sure that the shell can find Stata. To do
this, you must add the path to the Stata executable in Stata’s application bundle to your shell’s path.
Once that is done, you can invoke Stata from any directory from a shell.
For example, if Stata is installed in /Applications/Stata, then the path to the executable
for Stata/SE is /Applications/Stata/StataSE.app/Contents/MacOS. Type StataSE to start
Stata/SE.
For Stata/MP, it is /Applications/Stata/StataMP.app/Contents/MacOS. Type StataMP to
start Stata/MP.
For Stata/IC, it is /Applications/Stata/Stata.app/Contents/MacOS. Type Stata to start
Stata/IC.
For Small Stata, it is /Applications/Stata/smStata.app/Contents/MacOS. Type smStata
to start Small Stata.
Suppose you had a do-file named bigjob.do. If you want to use Stata in batch mode, typing
% StataSE -b do bigjob
tells Stata to execute the commands in bigjob.do, suppress all screen output, and route the output
to bigjob.log in the same directory. Stata will display a dialog when the commands have finished
executing.
Typing
% StataSE -e do bigjob
to bigjob.log in the same directory. Stata will simply exit without displaying a dialog when the
commands have finished executing.
% StataSE -s do bigjob
to bigjob.smcl in the same directory.
You can also run the above examples in the background by typing
% StataSE -b do bigjob &
% StataSE -e do bigjob &
% StataSE -s do bigjob &
Note: Stata runs profile.do before doing bigjob.do, just as it would if you were working
interactively.
B.4 Changing Stata’s locale

To change the local 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.
[ GSM ] B Advanced Stata usage 127
B.5 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 Mac
Contents
C.1 Using Stata datasets and graphs created on other platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
C.2 Exporting a Stata graph to another document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
C.3 Stata and the Notification Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
C.4 Stata(console) for Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
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 Windows or Unix system. Also, Stata for Windows and Stata for Unix
users can use any files that you create. Remember that .dta and .gph files are binary files, not text
files, so they need no translation; simply copy them over to your hard disk as is.
Files created on other platforms can be directly opened in the Command window; for example,
you can load a dataset by typing use filename or by double-clicking on the file in the Finder.
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.
C.2.1 Exporting the graph by using the Clipboard

The easiest way to export a Stata graph into another application is to use drag and drop. You can
select the graph in the Graph window and drag it to the location you would like it in another open
application.
You can also export graphs 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 in PDF format. This is the native
graphics format for Mac OS X. Programs made to edit vector graphics can be used to edit the elements
of the graph.
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. Some applications require you to first create a bounding box for the image to be placed in.
If pasting does not immediately work, see your application’s documentation on pasting images from
the Clipboard into documents.
128
[ GSM ] C More on Stata for Mac 129
C.2.2 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 Format, you will see that Stata can save in the following file types: Portable
Document Format (.pdf), Portable Network Graphics (.png), GIF (.gif), JPEG (.jpg), TIFF (.tif),
PostScript (.ps), and Enhanced PostScript (.eps), with or without a TIFF. PDF, PS, and EPS formats
are vector formats, whereas JPEG, GIF, PNG and TIFF are bitmap formats. EPS files are recommended
when you want to export your graph to an application on another platform, such as TEX or LATEX on
Unix (which is how all the graphs in Stata’s manuals were created), or for best output on a PostScript
printer. If you wish to include a thumbnail of the graph, choose EPS with TIFF preview. Choosing
the preview option does not affect how the graph is printed. PNG is well suited for placing graphs on
a webpage. See [G-2] graph export for more information.
C.3 Stata and the Notification Manager

You may work in another application while Stata is processing a time-intensive command or do-file.
Stata will notify you when it has finished by playing a sound and bouncing its application icon on the
Dock. The default notification behavior is for Stata to bounce its application icon on the Dock once.
The notification feature works only if Stata is put into the background while it is executing a command
or do-file. Stata will not notify you if it is in the foreground or requires further interaction from you
(such as a more condition). You can control how notifications work in Stata’s preferences.
C.4 Stata(console) for Mac OS X
C.4.1 Requirements
Stata(console) is included with both Stata/SE and Stata/MP for the Mac. It runs in a Terminal
window without a graphical user interface (GUI)—there are no Data Editor, Viewer, or Graph windows.
Graphs and datasets can be saved, as usual, they simply cannot be viewed interactively. Stata(console)
is meant for running Stata remotely and for running batch jobs in the background.
You can also run background jobs by using your standard Stata installation. The command line
options are given in [GSM] B.3 Stata batch mode.
You must already have Stata/SE or Stata/MP for the Mac installed and your license initialized
before installing Stata(console). If you have a single-user license and wish to have more than one
login ID use Stata at a time, please contact our sales department to purchase an upgrade to a multiuser
license. You should have some experience in working from a shell in Unix before attempting to set
up Stata(console). You must also have administrator access to your computer to complete the setup.
With administrator access, there is always the potential damaging your computer.
In the instructions that follow, use stata-mp in place of stata-se if you are installing the console
version of Stata/MP.
C.4.2 Installing Stata(console) using the Terminal utility

If you have installed Stata in its default location /Applications/Stata, Stata(console) can be
installed by selecting Stata > Install terminal utility.... You can then start the console version by
typing stata-se or stata-mp in a Terminal window.
130 [ GSM ] C More on Stata for Mac
If you rename Stata’s folder or move it out of the Applications folder after installing the utility,
the symbolic link to the console application will be broken. In this case, just reinstall the utility by
selecting Stata > Install Terminal Utility... again.
C.4.3 Installing Stata(console) by hand

If you would rather install Stata(console) by hand instead of using the built-in utility, read this
section. If you are not comfortable with Unix or are wary of damaging your computer, skip the rest
of this section. If you do not know when to use
setenv PATH /Applications/Stata:$PATH
and when to use
PATH=/Applications/Stata:$PATH
you should not attempt the installation.
1. Log in to your Mac with an account that has administrator privileges.
2. Install Stata/SE or Stata/MP in /Applications/Stata and initialize your license if Stata is not
already installed.
You have completed the installation process. We now wish to verify that everything is installed
properly as a regular user. To use Stata as a regular user, your path must include /Applica-
tions/Stata/StataSE.app/Contents/MacOS . For a quick test, we are going to be crude.
mymac: > export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Stata/StataSE.app/Contents/MacOS
mymac: > stata-se
Stata should come up. Once you have verified that everything is working, make sure that your
users modify their shell startup script to include /Applications/Stata/StataSE.app/Contents/MacOS in
their path. If they do not have a .bash profile file already, they should make one and include the
following line:
export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Stata/StataSE.app/Contents/MacOS
C.4.4 Updating Stata(console) in the future

Stata(console) is automatically updated when the regular Stata(GUI) application is updated. All
updating should be performed from within Stata(GUI).
Subject index commands,
compared with menus, 22
This is the subject index for the Getting Started with downloading and installing, 117–119
Stata for Mac manual. Readers may also want to consult learning, 30, 111–113
the combined subject index (and the combined author uninstalling, 120
index) in the Glossary and Index. updating, 120
comments, see log files, commenting
contextual menu, 24
A Graph window, 101
ado command, 35 Review window, 26
arithmetic operators, see operators, arithmetic Variables window, 28
automatic update checking, see updates, automatic Viewer window, 35
update checking Control–click, see right-clicking with one-button mouse
copying,
data, see data, copying
B graphs, see graphs, copying
correlate command, 15
batch mode, 125–126 creating variables, see variables, creating
blog, see Stata blog
bouncing dock icon, see Notification Manager
Break, 83 D
button, 25
data,
browse command, 2, 6, 7, 60
copying, 51, 64
button,
tips, 52
Break, 25, 83
entering, 48–52
Clear more condition, 25, 82
graphing, 16–21
Data Browser, 2, 25, 46
importing, see importing data
Data Editor, 25, 46, 48
labeling, 68–73
Do, 94, see button, Execute (do)
listing, 74–83
Do-file Editor, 25, 95
pasting, 51, 64
Execute (do), 95, 99
sorting, 53
Graph, 17, 25
strings, 50
Graph Editor, 101
Data Editor, 2, 46–60
Log, 23, 25, 105
attach value labels, 54
Open, 25
browse mode, 60
Print, 25
toolbar button, 25
Properties, 46
cell navigation, 50
Reset, 19
color coding, 2, 49
Run, see button, Execute (do)
contextual menus, 47
Save, 25
create value labels, 54
Show file in Viewer, 99
creating variables, 54
Variables, 46
cursor location box, 48–50, 53
Viewer, 25, 32
date
by() option, 14, 18
editing, 57–58
by prefix, 13, 15, 22
formats, 57
by/if/in tab, 7, 13, 15, 29
mask, 57–58
edit mode toolbar button, 25
C edit within cell, 50
empty columns, 49
cd command, 31 empty rows, 49
clear command, 91 enter data by column, 49
clear more condition, see more condition, clear enter data by row, 48
cmdlog command, 108 entering data, 48–52
codebook command, 4–6, 39 filtering, 9, 59
command history, 26 fonts, 109
command syntax, 22–23 hiding variables, 58–59
Command window, 24, 26 limiting exposure, 58–60
131
132 Subject index
Data Editor, continued Do-file Editor, continued

menu, 53–60 fonts, 109
movement, 47 getting Review window contents, 27
opening, 48 inserting a file, 98
reordering variables, 58–59 matching parentheses, 98
right-clicking, 47 split window, 98
searching, 53 syntax highlighting, 95
snapshots, 55–56 toolbar button, 25
sorting, 47, 53 Tools menu
tips, 58, 67 Show file in Viewer, 99
toolbar, 46 viewing nonprinting characters, 98
value labels, 53 drop command, 91–92
when to browse, 58 dropping variables, see variables, dropping
data management, 2–8 dummy variable, see indicator variable
data type, see variables, data type
dataset, 4
changing, 53–60
E
notes, 3 edit command, 59
opening, 44, 128 editing data, see Data Editor
saving, 44 editing dates, see Data Editor, date editing
saving in old format, 44 editing do-file, see Do-file Editor
structure, 2, 3 egen command, 84
dates, editing, see Data Editor, date editing Encapsulated Postscript, see EPS
db command, 30 encode command, 84
decode command, 84 EPS, 129
deleting variables, see variables, dropping equality, 12–13, 78
describe command, 3, 68–73 examples,
with short option, 48 dialogs, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13–17, 19, 29, 100
descriptive statistics, 8–16 graphs, 16–21, 100, 102
destring command, 84 help, 37–40
dialogs, 29–30 if qualifier, 6, 7, 12, 59–60, 76–79, 92–93
accessing from Command window, 30 in qualifier, 80
Cancel button, 30 menus, 1, 3–5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13–17, 19, 29–30, 100
Copy button, 30 varlist, 59, 74–76
Help button, 30 excel, import subcommand, 65, 67
OK button, 30 exp, see expressions
Reset button, 30 expressions, 76, 84
saving commands, 99
Submit button, 30
Variables field, 5, 7
F
directory, working, see working directory Facebook, 111, 114
disclosure control, 28 filenames, quotes, 44
display format, see variables, display format files, double-clicking, 125
displaying graphs, see graphs, schemes fitted values, see predict command
Do, fonts,
button, see button, Do changing in graphs, see graphs, schemes
menu item, 99 changing in one graph, see Graph Editor
do-file, 95–97, 99, 108, 124 changing in windows, see preferences, font
editing, see Do-file Editor preferences, see preferences, font
tips, 96 functions, 84
troubleshooting, 96–97
Do-file Editor, 94–99
balancing braces, 98 G
buttons, 94 generate command, 18, 19, 21, 85–90
changing case, 98 tips, 88
editing help files, 99 troubleshooting, 87
editing tools, 98 generating variables, see variables, creating
Subject index 133
Google+, 111 import delimited command, 65–67

Graph Editor, 102–104 import excel command, 65, 67
abilities, 103 import haver command, 67
closing, see Graph Editor, stopping import sasxport command, 65, 67
contextual toolbar, 102–103 importing data, 64–67
experimentation, 103 comma-delimited, 65
Grid Edit tool, 103 copying and pasting, 64, 67
Object Browser, 103 fixed-format data, 67
recording, 103 ODBC, see ODBC
starting, 102 paste special, 52
stopping, 103 SAS, see SAS
tools, 103 spreadsheet, 52, 65, 67
Undo button, 103 tab-delimited, 65
graph setup, see graphs, schemes tips, 67
Graph window, 17, 101 in qualifier, 22, 74, 80, 91
contextual menu, 101 indicator variable, 6, 18, 88
right-clicking, 101–102 generating, 85
toolbar button, 25 infile command, 65, 67
Graphical User Interface, see GUI infix command, 65, 67
graphs, installation, minimum OS requirement, 123
copy and paste, 128 Internet, 115–121
copying, 101 installing programs, see commands, downloading
drag and drop, 128 and installing
editing, see Graph Editor resources, 111–114
examples, see examples, graphs searching, 117–118
export formats, 129 using remote files, 115
exporting, 128
opening, 128
overlaid, 19–21
J
printing, 21, 101 JPEG, 129
renaming, 101
right-clicking, 101
saving, 101 K
schemes, 109 keep command, 91, 93
subgraphs, 17
GUI, 24–31
L
H label command, 70
label data command, 70
help command, 41 label define command, 71, 73
help for command, 35 label values command, 70, 73
help system, 37–43 label variable command, 21, 70
FAQs, 37 labels,
links, 39 data, 3, 70–72
menu, 37 value, 2, 4–5, 10, 13, 70, 72–73
search dialog, 37 confusing with string variable, 79
searching, 37–43, 117–118 why needed, 6
tips, 41 variable, 3–5, 70–72
videos, 37, 42 line, twoway subcommand, 20
hypothesis testing, 14 linear regression, see regression, linear
list command, 7, 66, 74–83
I listing data, see data, listing
loading data, see dataset, opening
identifier variable, 5 locale, 126
if qualifier, 6, 7, 12–13, 22, 74, 76–79, 86, 91 Log button, 25
troubleshooting, 78–79 log command, 105–107
134 Subject index
log files, 23, 105–108 operators, continued

appending, 105 string, 90
commenting, 106 options, 8, 22, 40, 74, 80
contents, 106 output, printing and saving, see log files
keeping just commands, 108
multiple open at once, 106
overwriting, 105
P
plain text, 105, 107 pasting,
printing, 107 data, see data, pasting
rerunning commands, 108 graphs, see graphs, copy and paste
SMCL, 105, 107 path control, 31
starting, 105 PDF, 107, 128–129
tips, 107 PDF documentation, 37, 39, 41
translating formats, 105, 107 PNG, 129
types, 107 poisson command, 29
viewing, 107 Portable Document Format, see PDF
logical Portable Network Graphics, see PNG
expression, 76–78 postestimation commands, 19
operators, see operators, logical precision, 69
predict command, 19
M preferences, 109–110
Clipboard, 109
median, 9 deleting, 123
memory, 6, 44, 69, 127 font, 109–110
allocation, 127 Graph window, 109
menus, 29 loading, 110
compared with commands, 22 managing, 110
examples, see examples, menus saving, 110
missing() function, 7, 60, 77 window, 109–110
missing values, 2, 4, 7, 11, 49, 53, 76–77, 85–86, 90 prefix command, 13, 22
extended, 53 printing, 25
Mission Control, 24 contents of Viewer, 34
more condition, 3, 4, 25, 82 graphs, 101
output, 107
N toolbar button, 25
profile.do, 124
net command, 35 Project Manager, 97, 99
NetCourses, 112 projects, 99
Not Elsewhere Classified, see Stata blog Properties window, 24, 50
notes, hiding, 28
managing, 62–63 revealing, 28
timestamps, 63
Notification Manager, 129
numlist, 80 R
reading list, see Stata reading list
O recording sessions, see log files
observations, 2 reference manuals, 41
ODBC, 67 regress command, 19, 22
odbc command, 65, 67 regression,
one-way table, see table, one-way linear, 18–22, 97
Open toolbar button, 25 Poisson, 29
opening a dataset, see dataset, opening relational operators, see operators, relational
operators, replace command, 84–88
arithmetic, 84 Results window, 1, 17, 24, 26
logical, 76, 78, 84 color scheme, 109
relational, 76, 84 fonts, 109
searching, 26
Subject index 135
Review window, 1, 24, 26–27 status bar, 31

contextual menu, 26 storage type, see variables, data type
hiding errors, 26 string variable, see variables, string
reusing commands, 26, 55 strings, 89–90
right-click, 26, 108 quoting, 79
saving contents, 27 strpos() function, 90
sending contents to Do-file Editor, 27 substr() function, 90
tip, 108 summarize command, 4, 8, 12–13, 22
right-clicking with one-button mouse, 24 syntax, 39, 74–81
Run button, see button, Run abbreviations, 74
diagram, 22
list command, 74
S syntax note, 2, 5, 7–15, 17–18, 22
sample session, 1–23 sysprofile.do, 125
SAS, 65, 67 sysuse command, 1
sasxport, import subcommand, 65, 67
save command, 31, 44–45 T
Save toolbar button, 25
saveold command, 44 table,
saving one-way, 10–11, 13–14
data, see dataset, saving two-way, 11–12
output, see log files tabulate command, 10–14
scatter, twoway subcommand, 16–18, 20 text variables, see variables, string
search command, 35, 41 TIFF, 129
searching help system, see help system, searching toolbar, main, 25
Show file in Viewer button, see button, Show file in tooltip, 25
Viewer tostring command, 84
SMCL, 34, 99, 105 training, see Stata training
Stata troubleshooting, 122–123
batch mode, 125–126 preferences, 123
blog, 111, 114 updates, see updates, troubleshooting
bookstore, 112 ttest command, 14
console, 129–130 Twitter, 111, 114
datasets available, 111, 115 twoway line command, 20
executing commands at startup, 124 twoway scatter command, 16–18, 20
FAQs, 111 two-way table, see table, two-way
Graph Editor, see Graph Editor type command, 35
learning more, 111–114
Markup and Control Language, see SMCL U
NetCourses, 112, 113
output, 1 Unicode, 90
Press, 113 update command, 35
public training courses, 112 updates, 35, 116
reading list, 112–113 automatic update checking, 116
running in Terminal, see Stata, console troubleshooting, 116
starts with an error, see troubleshooting use command, 44
startup options, 125 User’s Guide, 111
Statalist, 111
training, 112, 113
V
troubleshooting, see troubleshooting
updating, see updates value labels, creating and managing, 54
user interface, see GUI variables, 2
videos, 42, 112 allowable names, 51
won’t start, see troubleshooting creating, 54, 84–90
working directory, see working directory data type, 3, 5–6, 69, 85
Stata Journal, 37–38, 42–43, 111, 114, 115 display format, 4, 69
Stata News, 113 dropping, 28, 62, 91–92
136 Subject index
variables, continued Viewer, continued

formatting, 50 log files, 107
generating, see variables, creating navigating, 34
keeping, 28, 62 new window, 33
missing values, see missing values opening, 32
name, 3, 69 preferences, 35
abbreviating, 66, 74–76 printing, 34, 35
auto-completion, 26 printing log files, 107
naming, 50 right-clicking, 35
renaming, 50 selecting one Viewer, 33
storage type, see variables, data type tabs, 35
string, 3–5, 89–90 toolbar button, 25, 32
confusing with value labels, 79 viewing
Unicode, 69 current log, 34
text, see variables, string logs, 34
Variables Manager, 61–63 remote files, 34
contextual menus, 62 text files, 34
creating varlists, 62
dropping variables, 62
filtering variables, 61
W
keeping variables, 62 windows, 24
notes, 62–63 closing, 110
printing, 62 cycle, 24
restore columns, 62 opening, 110
restore sort order, 61 revealing, 24
right-clicking, 62 working directory, 31
Variable pane, 61–62
Variable Properties pane, 62
Variables window, 1, 19, 24, 27–28 Y
clicking, 27 YouTube videos, see Stata videos
columns, 27
contextual menu, 28
filtering, 27
hiding, 28
revealing, 28
varlist, 5, 22, 74, 91
videos, see Stata videos
View
Do-file Editor menu, 99
Execute (do), 99
Execute (do) to bottom, 99
Execute quietly (run), 99
view command, 35
Viewer, 32–36
Also see button, 39
buttons, 33
color scheme, 109
commands, 35
contextual menu, 35
Dialog button, 39
Find bar, 33
fonts, 109
Jump to button, 39
links
clicking, 33
middle-clicking, 33
Shift–clicking, 33

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GETTING STARTED WITH STATA

A Stata Press Publication

The suggested citation for this software is

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

[GSM] Getting Started with Stata for Mac

[M] Mata Reference Manual

Using this manual

Simple data management

storage display value

make str18 %-18s Make and Model

Sorted by: foreign

trunk 74 13.75676 4.277404 5 23

gear_ratio 74 3.014865 .4562871 2.19 3.89

make Make and Model

type: string (str18), but longest is str17

foreign Car type

type: numeric (byte)

rep78 Repair Record 1978

type: numeric (int)

Domestic 52 70.27 70.27

mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34

mpg 22 24.77273 6.611187 14 41

-> foreign = Domestic

mpg 52 19.82692 4.743297 12 34

-> foreign = Foreign

mpg 22 24.77273 6.611187 14 41

Domestic 19.826923 4.7432972 52

Total 21.297297 5.7855032 74

A simple hypothesis test

Domestic 52 19.82692 .657777 4.743297 18.50638 21.14747

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

Descriptive statistics—correlation matrices

-> foreign = Domestic

-> foreign = Foreign

2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

The command and the associated graph are

2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

Model fitting: Linear regression

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

mpg Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval]

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

3. Create the graph for mpg versus weight:

2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000

gp100m Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval]

weight .0016254 .0001183 13.74 0.000 .0013896 .0018612

Commands versus menus

Some general rules:

This means that

command by itself is valid: summarize

Keeping track of your work

Save saves the Stata dataset currently in memory to disk.

The Command window

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