>Introduction to Stata 10

Introduction to Stata 10

Stata is a comprehensive package for data management and statistics with strong graphical facilities. It is available for virtually all PC (Windows, Macintosh, etc.) and mainframe (UNIX) platforms.

Documentation

Base Documentation Set has 8 items:

Base Reference Manual (3 volumes)
Data Management Reference Manual
Graphics Reference Manual
User's Guide
Getting Started with Stata (for Windows, Macintosh or UNIX)
Quick Reference and Index

Complete Documentation Set has 16 items:

Base Reference Manual (3 volumes)
Data Management Reference Manual
Graphics Reference Manual
User's Guide
Getting Started with Stata (for Windows, Macintosh or UNIX)
Quick Reference and Index
Longitudinal/Panel Data Reference Manual
Mata Reference Manual (2 volumes)
Multivariate Statistics Reference Manual
Programming Reference Manual
Survey Data Reference Manual
Survival Analysis & Epidemiological Tables Reference Manual
Time-Series Reference Manual

Flavors of Stata

Stata/SE
can analyze datasets with as many as 32,766 variables, and the only limit on observations is the amount of RAM on your computer
can handle string variables with a maximum length of 244 characters
can handle matrices up to 11,000 x 11,000. In Mata, this is only limited by memory
requires at least 512 megabytes of RAM and 80 megabytes of disk space

Stata/IC
can analyze datasets with as many as 2,047 variables, and the only limit on observations is the amount of RAM on your computer
can handle string variables with a maximum length of 244 characters
can handle matrices up to 800 x 800. In Mata, this is only limited by memory
requires at least 512 megabytes of RAM and 80 megabytes of disk space

Small Stata
has all the features of Stata/IC but can only process datasets of around 1,000 observations and 99 variables
can handle string variables with a maximum length of 244 characters.
can handle matrices up to 40 x 40.
requires at least 512 megabytes of RAM and 80 megabytes of disk space

Stata/MP
Stata/MP is the Multiprocessor version of Stata/SE. Stata/MP is used on multiprocessor computers to speed up calculation by using a number of processor to do calculations.

To see a complete list of the differences between flavours of Stata see

How does Stata work

The typical working screen is arranged into four panels, that you can re-size or re-arrange:

Top LH corner: Review: a list of previous commands
Bottom LH corner: Variables: a list of variables
Top RH corner: Results
Bottom RH corner: Command line for entering commands

Stata has two modes for use: interactive and batch.

In interactive mode sessions are run interactively from the dialog boxes or the Stata command window. When using dialog boxes commands for statistics (with any options) and variable names are selected. The actual Stata commands also appear in the Command box. Commands for data management or statistics may also be typed in (abbreviations are usually permitted). Variable names can be typed in (and may be abbreviated) or selected from the list of variables. Previous commands can be selected from the review panel and re-submitted after modification. In practice, the command line procedure is very fast. The analysis itself is incredibly fast. There is online help for all commands. In batch mode analyses are run from scripts (Stata do files). Stata is fully programmable so that users can create their own routines.

Most users run a log file for their session. This is in ASCII format and can be edited in a word processing programs or text editor. The list of review commands can be saved into a .do file for editing and subsequent use in batch processing. Graphical output can be copied into word processing programs or saved in various formats eg. wmf, ps, eps etc.

Stata Graph Editor

Stata produces publication quality graphs. Now with the Stata 10 graph editor these graphs can be produced with ease.

Capabilities

Please go to the Stata web site for a complete list of capabilities of Stata 10. There is a search box if you want details of specific procedures. You may also view a a sample session for Stata 10. This sample session is based on the Stata 10 "Getting Started with Stata" manual but includes additional links that are very useful for those who are rather new to Stata.

Support

Technical advice and service for Stata is excellent: prompt, detailed, authoritative and friendly.

The manuals are comprehensive: easy to read with details of how to run programs as well as examples, and a clear description of the underlying statistics.
Advice by phone from the distributor (Survey Design and Analysis Services Pty Ltd).
Advice by email from Stata technical support staff.
Advice by email from other Stata users via the Stata listserver.
Support from an increasing network of Stata users in Australia.
Courses run in Australia for learning Stata.
Free courses for learning Stata from other web sites.
Inexpensive web-based courses run by Stata.
A range of texts is available for learning about Stata, or for learning about statistics by using Stata.

Looking at Stata

In order to see what Stata looks like, we have two suggestions:

Talk to a colleague who already has a copy. If you contact us we can probably give you the name of someone nearby who uses Stata.
If we cannot give you the name of someone nearby who uses Stata, we may be able to send you a fully functional evaluation copy of Stata. This will be valid for 35 days, to give you time to experience the speed and power of the program.