INTRODUCTION TO STATA

MR. B. CHIZONDE
Department of Economics, UNZA
©2016
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are
generally right”
Zig Ziglar
OUTLINE
1.What is Stata?
2. The Stata Display
3. Exiting Stata
4. Stata Data Files
5. Opening Stata Data File
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
1. What is Stata?
 The name STATA is a syllabic abbreviation of the words
“statistics and data.”
 STATA is a general purpose statistical software package
which was created in 1985 by StataCorp.
 Stata is used in conducting research in fields like
economics, sociology, political science, biomedicine,
epidemiology, mathematical statistics and others.
 This statistical package has both a graphical user interface
(GUI) and a command line interface.
2. The Stata Display
 Stata has the following display components:
 1. Command: This is where Stata commands are typed.
 2. Results: This is the largest part of the display. It shows the
output from the commands and error messages in red.
 3. Review: Shows a list of commands recently executed.
 4. Variables: Shows the names of the variables in the data
and labels (if created)
 5. Menu-Bar: This is located across the top of the display. It
is used for GUI
 6. Tool-Bar: This is right below the menu Bar and also used
for GUI.
3. Exiting Stata
 Note: Stata can be opened by double-clicking on
the icon on your computer.
 It can be exited using the following methods:
 1. Menu Bar: File >Exit
 2. Command: simply type exit and then enter.
 3. Window: you can simply use the close (X)
button of the Stata window.
5. Opening Stata Data File
 *Once the data files have been put in the Working Directory,
opening the individual data file is very simple.
 1. Via Commands:
 use cps4_small
 clear
 use cps4_small, clear
 2. Via Toolbar
 Click on the folder icon, and then locate the file using the
dialog box and open it.
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 1. Editing Variables
 (Open cps4_small.dta)
 (a) Via Toolbar
 Click on the Data Editor icon (in edit mode) on the toolbar.
 Once you are in edit mode, you can change variable properties
using the properties section.
 (b) Via commands:
 rename wage wage1 (changes name)
 label variable wage1 “earnings” (changes label)
 (c) Variable Manager
 click on the ‘Variable Manager’ on the toolbar and then you can
edit the variable names, labels and more.
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 2. Stata Command Syntax
 Stata commands have the following common syntax
 Command [varlist] [if] [in] [weight] [, options]
 * Command: the name of the command, eg summarize
 * [varlist]: list of variables for the command
 * [if]: condition imposed on the command
 * [in]: specific range of observations for the command
 * [weight]: used when some sample observations are to be
weighted differently than others.
 *[, option]: command options come after a comma.
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 3. Summarize and Describe commands
 (these are the most basic stata commands and usually the first commands
performed on the data)
 The following are the variations of the commands based on the stata
syntax.
 describe
 summarize
 sum
 d
 summarize wage, detail
 summarize wage if female==1
 sum wage if female==0
 summarize if exper>=10
 summarize in 1/50
 use cps4_small, clear
 sum wage if female==1 in 1/500, detail
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 4. Saving the output
 The output can be saved using the following ways:
 (a) Copying and pasting
 *you can copy stata output as a picture and then paste in a word
document for saving.
 (b) Log File
 A Log file is a simple way to save your output in either text or smcl
format.
 (i) Text Log File:
 log using chap01, replace text
 sum
 describe
 log close
 (the command generated a log file in text format which has been saved
in the working directory)
 Simply go to the working directory and open the document.
 (ii) Smcl Log File
 The smcl format generates a log file which appears like stata output and
can only be opened by Stata.
 log using chap02, replace
 sum
 describe
 log close
 *The smcl format log file has been generated.
 * To open the log file, File> View, then locate the log file and open it.
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 5. Stata Graphing
 Stata graphing is better done through the GUI and not commands.
 (a) Histogram
 Graphics>Histogram
 Select the variable “wage”, percent on Y-axis and then OK.
 The graph can then be saved, printed or copied.
 Command: hist wage
 (b) Scatter Diagram
 Graphics> Two way graph (scatters, lines, etc)
 Then click on create, add variables:Y-variable “wage” and X-variable “educ”.
Then click submit.
 Command: scatter wage educ
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 6. Stata Do-Files
 A do-file is a file containing the list of commands that will be
executed as a batch.
 A do-file can be created from the commands in the review
window.
 Right-click on Review commands, select all, then send the
do-file to editor.
 After editing it, file>save.
 Give it the name do1 and then save it.
 Note: * can be used to add comments within the do-file. Any
line starting with * will be skipped when do-file is executed.
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 7. GeneratingVariables
 (a) Using GUI
 Data>create or change variables>create new variables
 *under “variable name” put the new name of the variable, eg wage2
 Then the expression is wage^2, then ok
 (b) Using Commands
 generate wage3=wage^3
 gen lwage=ln(wage)
 drop wage3 wage2
 drop if wage>5.50
 drop in 1/5
 use cps4_small, replace
 drop in 51/100
 use cps4_small, replace
 gen negwage = -wage
 gen blackeduc = black*educ
 gen wage_educ = wage/educ
 gen elwage = exp(lwage)
 gen rootexper= sqrt(exper)
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 8. Generating IndicatorVariables
 To generate an indicator variable we use the generate
command with a condition to be satisfied.
 If the condition is satisfied, the variable is assigned the value
1, otherwise it is assigned the value 0.
 generate hs=(9<=educ)&(educ<=12)
 * This generates an indictor variable names ‘hs” which is 1 if
education level is between 9 years and 12 years.
 * To avoid transforming missing values to 0, we add a
condition if the data has missing values.
 generate hs=(9<=educ)&(educ<=12) if !missing(educ)
6. Basic Tasks in Stata
 9 Tabulating Data
 Tabulating helps to observe the frequency of observation for
each variable.
 tabulate educ
 tab educ, gen(educ)
 *the last command generates indictor variables for each
possible value of educ.
END
 Reference
 Adkins L, & Hill R, (2011) Using Stata for Principles of
Econometrics, 4th Edition: USA