Introductory Stata workshop

Command Description Sample Code Sample Description

help (command name) Pulls up STATA’s help menu help gen Brings up the help menu for “gen”

// comments Comment at the end of a line clear all // This is a comment Uses the command clear all and then
adds a comment at the end of the
line
* comments Single line comment * More comments Can only be used at the beginning of
a line
/* comments */ Anything between /* and */ will be /* This is a comment … All of the text is interpreted as a
commented out And so is this comment by STATA
*/
cd Change the directory cd “C:\Downloads” Tells STATA to open and save files in
the “C:\Downloads” folder
use Reads in STATA (.dta) data use “Entrance.dta”, clear Reads in “Entrance.dta” after
clearing “flavor2.csv” from memory
infile using Reads in ASCII (.txt) data infile id gender age gpa act sat actsat athlete Reads in the file “entrance.txt”
using “entrance.txt”
insheet using Reads in a spreadsheet (.csv) data insheet using "flavor2.csv", clear Reads in the file “falvor2.csv” after
clearing previous data from memory

clear all Clears everything from STATA’s memory clear all See description

browse Opens the Data Browser. browse See description

Can be used by itself. Can also enter in
variable names to view only specific
variables.
edit Opens the Data Editor. edit See description
Can be used by itself. Can also enter in
variable names to view only specific
variables.
summarize # of obs., mean, std. dev., min, max sum gpa Summary info. for gpa
 Introductory Stata workshop
sum variable, detail Summarize command with more details sum gpa, d Summary of gpa with percentiles,
skewness, kurtosis, median, etc.
mean Estimates the true mean w/ conf. mean act Estimate mean of act
intervals
tabulate Creates two-way frequency tables tab act gender Two-way frequency table of act and
gender
tab1 Creates two-way frequency tables tab1 act gender Two-way frequency table of act and
gender
frequency Lists frequency tables fre act gender Separate frequency tables of act and
gender
proportion Estimate proportions with conf. intervals proportion age Estimated proportion of age by each
unique value of the var. age
histogram Histogram of a single variable histogram gpa Histogram of the variable gpa

scatter Scatter plot of two variables scatter gpa act, title(gpa/act Regression) Scatter plot of gpa vs. act with the
specified title
pwcorr Produces a correlation table pwcorr gpa act, sig Shows correlation and significance
between gpa and act
reg Computes a linear regression of the reg gpa act Regresses act on gpa
included variables
generate Create a variable gen fpc = 1 new variable fpc with all cells = 1

Create a dummy variable gen YoungFem = ((gender==1) & (age==17)) YoungFem = 1 if gender is 1 and is 17
(= 0 otherwise)
Create an ID, or serial variable gen id_2 = _n Id_2 = the observation # of in the
dataset for each observation
Create a variable = # obs. gen obs = _N Obs = 49 , which is the total # of obs.
In the data
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egen Generate with functions egen actsat_rank = rank(actsat) Generate the variable actsat_rank,
shows the rank of each person on
There are a number of functions that can egen actsat_rank_age = rank(actsat), by(age) their ACT and SAT scores. Can also
be used with the egen command. look at rank by their age.
egen mean_actsat = mean(actsat) You can also generate a mean score
Do a “help egen” command for a full list of for a variable, and you can generate
all functions. egen mean_actsat_age = mean(actsat), by(age) a mean score, by another variable.
preserve Temporarily preserve the current data set. preserve
Must be done before making changes to
data.

restore Restores data to preserved point

rename Rename an existing variable rename sat SAT Renames sat “SAT”

recode Changing the values of a numeric variable. recode gender (2=1) (1=0) Gender now equals 0 for females and
Does not work with string variables. 1 for males
Replace can be used for string variables.

Create a new categorical variable using the recode age (17/18=0) (else=1), gen(old) New variable old = 0 if age value
recode command ranges from 17 to 18
drop Removes variables or observations drop if gpa < 2.00 Removes observations where gpa
less than 2
label variable Give an entire variable a label label var gender "Male" Adds the label “gender” to the
variable Male
label define Create a label for given values. The label define race_label 0"white" 1"black" Creates a label named “race_label”
name you give the label can be 2"hispanic" 3 "asian" that will label all values of 0 as
anything. “white” and all values of 1 as
“black” and so forth.
label values Apply the created label to values label values race race_label Applies the label “race_label” to the
variable “race”
sort Sort the entire data by listed variables sort age Sorts by the value of age (ascending
is the default)
 Introductory Stata workshop
order Rearrange the order of variables in the dataorder actsat actsat_rank actsat_rank_age Places the variables listed in that
order in the data set
list Lists values of variables in the output list age in 1/10 Lists the first ten values of age (in
window the sorted order)
tostring Convert a numeric variable to text (string) tostring id, replace Converts the variable id into string
variable
destring Convert a text (string) variable to numeric. destring id, replace Converts the variable id into numeric
All values of the variable must be variable
numbers.

Tips and Tricks

• Stata files can also be opened by dragging them into Stata
• Stata is case sensitive
o All commands are lowercase
o Variable names must match exactly
• Use the keyboard shortcut (control d) to execute commands in the do-file
• It is generally unnecessary to save changes to your data set if you used a do-file
o The do-file should be saved, and can be re-run to replicate what you already did
o Any saves should be made with a new file name so as not to change your original file