STM103Spring2009

INTRODUCTIONTOSTATA

1.DOWNLOADINGDATA:......................................................................................................................2
Assignment1preparation..........................................................................................................................3
Selectvariables...........................................................................................................................................3
2.STARTINGASTATASESSION..............................................................................................................4
Opening,Saving,andClosingthedatafile.................................................................................................5
KeepingalogrecordofaStataSession......................................................................................................5
UsingOperators..........................................................................................................................................5
3.WORKINGWITHDATA.......................................................................................................................6
Toseewhatyourselectedvariablescontain:............................................................................................6
Tolookatthe%distributionincategoricalvariables................................................................................7
Tolookatatablecombiningtwocategoricalvariables.............................................................................7
CreatingandChangingValuesofVariables................................................................................................8
LabelingVariablesandValues....................................................................................................................9
UsingFunctions..........................................................................................................................................9
DeletingVariablesandObservations.........................................................................................................9
list .........................................................................................................................................................10
Analysisofcontinuous(scale)variables...................................................................................................10
Correlations..............................................................................................................................................10
EstimatingLinearModels(OLSand2StageLeastSquares).....................................................................11
EstimatingNonLinearModels(LogitandProbit)....................................................................................11
logit .........................................................................................................................................................11
probit........................................................................................................................................................12
4.MAKINGGRAPHS.............................................................................................................................12
Histogram.................................................................................................................................................12
Scatterplot................................................................................................................................................12
Bargraphs.................................................................................................................................................13
Printingyourgraph...................................................................................................................................13
5.UTILITIES.........................................................................................................................................13
ViewingtheData......................................................................................................................................13
CreatingandSubmittingaDoFile............................................................................................................13
6.CONVERTINGDATAFILES(EXCELTOSTATA)....................................................................................14

ThisprovidesabriefintroductiontousingStatafortheQoGdatasetanalysis.Stataisavailableonallof
the computers in the Kennedy Schools computer lab. If you have a home computer you may want to
purchaseacopyofStatafromtheCMO.StataisavailableforWindows98,Windows2000,WindowsME,
Windows XP, Windows NT, Macintosh, and UNIX operating systems. The Stata Users Guide is also
availablefromtheCMO.
The commands outlined below assume that you are using Stata for Windows. Throughout this text,
anything appearing in Bold font is a Stata command, whereas anything in red italics is a variable name
whichyoushouldchangeforyourspecificanalysis.Menucommandsareindicatedas,e.g.,File|Open,to
indicatethatyoufirstgototheFilemenuandthenchoosetheOpenoption.TheBlue Courieristhe
typeofoutputyoushouldgenerate.Asashortcut,youcanalsojustcopyandpasteanyofthecommand
linesheredirectlyintoyourStataCommandwindowthenrun.

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1.DOWNLOADINGDATA:
GototheQoGwebsite:http://www.qog.pol.gu.se/GotoData:theQoGData

2.Downloadthecorrectversionofthedataset.Tostartwork,downloadthecrosssectionaldatasetfor
Stataandsavethissomewhereclearlylabeledonyourmemorystick,harddriveorsharedserverspace.

3.AlsosavethePDFversionoftheFULLCodebooksomewheresafe;itisverylongbutaninvaluable
referencedocument.

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ASSIGNMENT1PREPARATION
Theaimistowriteaprofessionalreportassessingandcomparingtheproblemsofdemocraticgovernance
reforminoneworldregion.Pickyourregion:

LatinAmericaandtheCaribbean,
Africa,
Asia,
CentralandEasternEurope,
MiddleEast
WesternEurope

Thinkaboutthekeyproblemsofdemocraticgovernanceintheregion.Fromyourexperienceandyour
reading,whataretheprioritiesforagencies?Canyourankthem?Focusonthemostimportant23issues
inthefirstinstance.Thenlookcarefullyattheshareddatasetcodebook.Startbyselecting34indicators
whichrelatetotheproblemsyouhavedecidedtofocusupon.Thesharedclassdatasetprovidesthe
followingindicators,alongwithmanyothers:
1.FreedomHouseindexofpoliticalrightsandcivilliberties
2.PolityIVProjectDemocracyandAutocracyscales
3.CheibubandGandhiDemocracyAutocracyclassification
4.VanhanenDemocracyIndex
5.WorldValuesSurvey/GlobalBarometersAttitudinalsurveys
6.Kaufmann/KrayWorldBankInstituteGoodgovernanceindicators
7.TransparencyInternationalCorruptionindex

SELECTVARIABLES
You can use the whole dataset without doing anything further but there are a LOT of variables in the
dataset.Tosimplifyyourlifeandmakeitlessconfusing,forthisexerciseyouwillfinditeasiertoidentifya
subsetofkeyvariablesfromtheWhatItIslistwhichyouwanttouse.
You can always go back to select more variables at a later stage (none are deleted) but first work out
whichvariablestoputintoyoursubseti.e.whatisimportantasindicatorsofdemocraticgovernancefor
yourregion.NoteinStataitmatterswhethervariablenamesareincapitalsornot.
Selectthefirstoneslistedbelowandpickabout510toadd.Writedowndetailsinthelistbelowsothat
youhavethishandy.Lookinthefullcodebookformoredetailsabouttheconstructionandmeaningof
each.
Name
cname
ht_region
chga_regime

fh_status

p_polity
fh_cl
fh_pr
wbgi_vae
wbgi_pse
wbgi_gee

Briefdescription
Countryname
Globalregion:10categories
CheibubandGhandi:Typeofdemocraticorautocraticregime

Freedom House: classification of states into free, semifree and

notfree

Combinedpolityscoreofdemocracyandautocracy
FreedomHousecivilliberties
FreedomHousepoliticalrights
WorldBank:Voiceandaccountabilityestimate
WorldBank:Politicalstabilityestimate
WorldBank:Governmenteffectiveness

Type
Nominal
Nominal
Nominal

Ordinal

Scale10/+10
Scale7pt
Scale7pt
Scale
Scale
Scale

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rsf_pfi
ti_cpi

ReporterswithoutBorders:PressFreedomIndex
TransparencyInternational:CorruptionPerceptionIndex

Scale100pts
Scale100pts

2.STARTINGASTATASESSION

StartStatabylocatingthelinkonthedesktopandclicking. StataSE 8.lnk

Stataisapowerfultoolforconductingstatisticalanalyses.HereiswhatatypicalsessioninStatalookslike.

Thewindowscanbemovedaboutandresizedtosuityourpreferences.Ifyoudonotseeanyoftheseon
yourversion,gotoWindowandaddtheseuntiltheylookroughlyliketheabove.
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a.HeretheResultswindowliststheoutcome.
b.TheVariableswindow,ontheleft,liststhenamesofallthevariablesincludedintheshareddataset.
c.Youcanentercommandsintwoways.Tostartlearningtheprogram,youcanusethedropdown
menus,similartothosecommoninMicrosoftprograms.Thisisusefulforbeginners.Onceyoubecome
morefamiliarwiththeprogram,youwillwanttotypeincommandsdirectly,tosavetime,usingthe
Commandwindowatthebottomcenterofthescreen.AcommandtellsStatawhattodoe.g,toopena
file,torunaregression,tocalculateameanofavariable,etc.
d.TheReviewwindowshowsalistofallthecommandsyouhavealreadyrun.(Here,itshowsthatIhave
openedadatafile.)IfyouclickonapreviouslyruncommandintheReviewwindow,itwillappearinthe
Commandwindowandyoucanedititorrunitagain.

OPENING,SAVING,ANDCLOSINGTHEDATAFILE
Youwillthenneedtoopenthedatafileyouhavesaved.Youmayneedtoboostthememoryallocated.
Setmemory80000
File|Open
File|SaveAs

Itisalsoalwaysusefultohaveabackupcopyofyourdata.Thisway,nomatterwhatyoudotochangeor
recodethevariables,youalwayshaveacopyoftheolderversion.Itisalsousefulpracticetosaveyour
datafileattheendofeachsessionunderanewsequentialversion(egSTM103_2,STM103_3,sothatyou
havetheoldandnewestfileincaseyouneedtorevertback.
File|Exit
Wheneveryoufinish,toexitStata.

KEEPINGALOGRECORDOFASTATASESSION
File|log
Tosaveafile(log)ofyourresults,youwillneedtocreatealogfile.Statagivesyoutwochoicesoffile
formatsforyourlogfile,.log(textfile)and.smcl(formattedlogfile).The.smclfileswilllooknicerwhen
printed.YoushouldneverevercutandpasteyourStataoutputdirectlyintoyourreport;alwayssimplify,
cleanandtransferinaprofessionalandcleanformat.
Tostartalogfileinteractively,chooseFile|Log|Begin,selectthedirectoryyouwanttosavethelogfile
in,andgiveitaname(suchasjob1).Alternately,youcanclickonthefourthiconfromtheleftontheicon
bar,whichlookslikeascroll.
File|Log|Close

USINGOPERATORS
Statausesthefollowingarithmeticoperators:
+

*
/
^

add
subtract
multiply
divide
raisetothepower
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Forrelations,Statauses:
==
equal
~=
notequal
>
greaterthan
<
lessthan
>=
greaterthanorequalto
<=
lessthanorequalto
Notethatasingleequalsign(=)isusedwhenassigningavaluetoavariable:
genwage=salary/(hours*weeks)
butadoubleequalsign(==)isusedwhenaskingStatatomakeacomparison:
replacefulltime=1ifhours==40
Forlogicaloperations,Statauses:
&
and
|
or(pipesign;whatyougetwhenyouhitShiftandthe\key)
~
not

Notethatwhentypingvariablenamesthecapitalizationmatters,followtheexactlabelsinthevarlist.

3.WORKINGWITHDATA

TheQoGisaverylongdatasetsotosimplifyyourlifeyoumaywanttostartbymovingthekeyvariables
youhaveselectedtothetopofthelist.Thatwayyoucanfindthemeasilyinsteadofhavingtohunt
througheachtime.Todothis,usingthetopmenugotoData|VariableUtilities|Relocatevariable
Todothisusingacommandtype:
ordercnameht_regionp_polityfh_statusfh_clfh_prchga_regimewbgi_vaewbgi_psewbgi_geersf_pfi
ti_cpi
Addthenamesofyourotherselectedvariablestothislist.Arrangetheminalogicalorder.
Thismovesallyourselectedvariablestothetopofthelistofvariables.
Whenyouhavetheseintheorderyouneed,savethefilewithanewname.Thatwayyoualwayshavethe
originalandabackupworkingfile.
Youcanalsorenamevariablesbutatthestartitsbesttokeepthenamesinthecodebooktopreservethe
record.

TOSEEWHATYOURSELECTEDVARIABLESCONTAIN:
Letsnowgetsomebasicdescriptiveresults.Firstwecanlookatsomeofthemostcommonvariableswe
areusingandoncewehavecompletedthisexerciseyoushouldsubstitutethe510variablesyouhave
chosentogetasenseofwhatisavailable.
Letsstartwithsomedifferenttypesofvariables.Nominalcategorieshavenoparticularorder,suchas
North,South,East,West.Ordinalcategorieshaveasequentialorderbutalimitednumberofcategories,
suchasHigh,MediumandLow.Scalevariablesareorderedintoacontinuousseries,forexamplelevelof
GDPindollars.
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Firstletssummarizeyourselectedvariables.Type:
sum

ht_region p_polity fh_cl fh_pr

Variable |

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

-------------+-------------------------------------------------------ht_region |

192

4.526042

2.644633

10

p_polity |

160

14.45487

-77

10

fh_cl |

192

3.385417

1.821166

-------------+-------------------------------------------------------fh_pr |

192

3.364583

2.156785

chga_regime |

189

.3968254

.4905386

Thisisveryusefulforlookingatyourselectedvariablestoseewhattheyarelike,whethernominal,
ordinalorscale(continuous).E.g.chga_regimeisabinary2categoryvariable.Trythisforacoupleof
yourvariablesandaddnotestoyourselectedvarsonpage2.
summarizecanbeabbreviatedtosum.Youcanalsolookatmoredetail.eg
sumht_region,detail
Youcandothesamejustforoneselectedregion
sump_polityifht_region==1,detail

TOLOOKATTHE%DISTRIBUTIONINCATEGORICALVARIABLES
Forcategoricalvariables,trythefollowingwhichgeneratessomesimplefrequenciesielookatthe
numberofcountries(Freq)andthepercentcolumn.
. tab1 ht_region
The Region of the Country |

Freq.

Percent

Cum.

----------------------------------------+----------------------------------1. Eastern Europe and post Soviet Union |

27

14.06

14.06

2. Latin America |

20

10.42

24.48

3. North Africa & the Middle East |

20

10.42

34.90

4. Sub-Saharan Africa |

48

25.00

59.90

5. Western Europe and North America |

27

14.06

73.96

6. East Asia |

3.13

77.08

7. South-East Asia |

11

5.73

82.81

8. South Asia |

4.17

86.98

9. The Pacific |

12

6.25

93.23

10. The Caribbean |

13

6.77

100.00

----------------------------------------+----------------------------------Total |

192

100.00

TOLOOKATATABLECOMBININGTWOCATEGORICALVARIABLES

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tab2 ht_region

chga_regime, col

-> tabulation of ht_region by chga_regime

The Region of the |
Type of Regime
Country | 0. Democr 1. Dictat |
Total
----------------------+----------------------+---------1. Eastern Europe and |
17
10 |
27
|
14.91
13.33 |
14.29
----------------------+----------------------+---------2. Latin America |
17
3 |
20
|
14.91
4.00 |
10.58
----------------------+----------------------+---------3. North Africa & the |
3
17 |
20
|
2.63
22.67 |
10.58
----------------------+----------------------+---------4. Sub-Saharan Africa |
20
28 |
48
|
17.54
37.33 |
25.40
----------------------+----------------------+---------5. Western Europe and |
26
0 |
26
|
22.81
0.00 |
13.76
----------------------+----------------------+---------6. East Asia |
4
2 |
6
|
3.51
2.67 |
3.17
----------------------+----------------------+---------7. South-East Asia |
3
7 |
10
|
2.63
9.33 |
5.29
----------------------+----------------------+---------8. South Asia |
3
5 |
8
|
2.63
6.67 |
4.23
----------------------+----------------------+---------9. The Pacific |
8
3 |
11
|
7.02
4.00 |
5.82
----------------------+----------------------+---------10. The Caribbean |
13
0 |
13
|
11.40
0.00 |
6.88
----------------------+----------------------+---------Total |
114
75 |
189
|
100.00
100.00 |
100.00

CREATINGANDCHANGINGVALUESOFVARIABLES
Recodeandgenerate
Thishelpstocategorizethevalueofanexistingscalevariable.Forexample,takethevariablecalled
p_politythatcontainsthe20pointPolityIVscaleforeachnationinyourstudy.Butyouwantthescale
tobecollapsedintotwotypesofregime,democraciesandautocracies.Todothis,generateanew
variablecalledregimeandrecodeitasfollows:
genregime=p_polity
recoderegime10/1=00/10=1
sumregime
Whenrecodingyourdata,becarefulnottooverwriteyouroriginalvariable.Youcancheckwhatyouhave
donewiththesummaryortab1commands.
Oryoumaywanttocreatesanewvariable,inthiscasefh_scale,definedasfh_clplusfh_pr:
Generatefh_scale=(fh_cl+fhpr)
Youcanuseanyformulatostandardizethescale.eg
generatefh_scale100=100(fh_cl+fh_pr)*7.1
Togenerateanewbinaryvariableforyourregion,ifAfrica(coded)

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generateafrica=.
replaceafrica=1if(ht_region==4)
replaceafrica=0if(ht_region~=4)

Youcanabbreviatethiscommandwithgen.NotethatStatawilltellyouifanymissingvalueswere
generatedbyattemptingtoperformacalculationwithmissinginformation.Forexample,ifoneofthe
observationswasmissinginformationonhours,Statawouldsetyrhrsequaltomissingforthis
observation.(Seefurthernotesaboutmissingdatalaterinthissection.)
Onceavariablewithaparticularnamehasbeengeneratedyoucantgenerateanotherwiththesame
name.Instead,youmustreplacetheoldone.

LABELINGVARIABLESANDVALUES
Labelingvariablesandvalueshelpsyoukeeptrackofhowyoucodedyourvariablesandwhatthey
represent.Ittakesjustacoupleofsecondstoaddlabels,anditcansaveyoulotsoftimelaterwhenyou
cantrememberwhattheacodeof4meansinyourGDPcategoryvariable,forexample,orhowthe
variabledemo1differsfromdemo2.
Toattachalabeltoavariableanditsvalues:
labelvariableafricaWorldregion
labelvaluesafricaafricalabel
labeldefineafricalabel0Restoftheworld1SubSaharanAfrica

USINGFUNCTIONS
Functionsarespecialcalculationsusedwithothercommands,suchasgenerateorreplace.Statahasthe
capabilitytocalculatemanyfunctions.Herearesomeexamplesofthemostcommonlyusedones.
ln(x)
Calculatesthenaturallogofx,wherexmaybeaconstantoravariablesuchasmad_gdppc.
Inacommand,youmightusethelogfunctionlikethis:
genlogGDP2006=ln(mad_gdppc)

DELETINGVARIABLESANDOBSERVATIONS
drop
The drop command can delete either variables or observations. Deleting a variable removes an entire
variable (column) from the data set, whereas deleting an observation removes an entire observation
(row) from the data set. Be careful when doing this the variables and observations are permanently

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deletedonceyousavethedatafile!Itisfarbettertoretainthewholedatasetbuttofilterfortheselected
region.
Toeliminateavariable,inthiscasemad_gdppc:
dropmad_gdppc
Toeliminateobservations,inthiscaseEasternEuropeasaregion:
dropifht_region==1
Alternativelyyoucouldjustkeepasubsetofdata:
keepifafrica==1

LIST
Printsallvariablesandobservationstothescreen.Youllprobablyneverwanttodothissinceyourdata
setswillbetoolarge.
list
Youcanprintalimitedsetofvariables:
listfh_status
Youcouldalsoprintalimitedsetofobservationsaccordingtoanothercriteria,inthiscaseAfricabeing
equalto1:
listcnamefh_statusfh_clfh_prifht_region==3
codebook
Providesevenmoreinformation(mean,standarddeviation,range,percentiles,labels,numberofmissing
values,etc.)aboutavariable:
codebookfh_statufh_prfh_cl

ANALYSISOFCONTINUOUS(SCALE)VARIABLES
EXAMININGMEANSBYCATEGORY
Inthiscasethecategoryisht_regionandthemeaniscalculatedforp_polity.Youcandothiswithvarious
commandseg
tableht_region,contents(meanp_polity)
tabstatp_polityfh_statusfh_clfh_pr,by(ht_region)columns(variables)
meanp_polity,over(ht_region)

CORRELATIONS
corrfh_clfh_prp_polity
Withsignificance(P)printedbelowinstarsforallcoefficientssignificantat.05orabove
pwcorr fh_cl fh_pr p_polity, star(5)

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ESTIMATINGLINEARMODELS(OLSAND2STAGELEASTSQUARES)
regress
Calculatesanordinaryleastsquares(OLS)regression,inthiscaseforaregressionofthedependent
p_polityontheindependentsGDPandal_ethnic.Notethatthedependentvariableisthefirst
variablelisted.
regressp_politymad_gdppcal_ethnic
IfyouwishtoonlyincludeobservationswithAfricaequalto1intheregression:
regressp_politymad_gdppcal_ethnicifafrica==1
Torunaregressionwithrobuststandarderrors:
regressStable2006GDP2006Africa,robust
ToruntwostageleastsquareswhereGDPisendogenousandz1"isanexogenousinstrumental
variable:
regressp_polityal_ethnic(mad_gdppcz1)
Note:Ifyourunaregressioncontainingmorethan40variables,Statawillreturnanerrorcodesaying:
matsizetoosmall
Toovercomethisproblem,resetthemaximumnumberofvariablesStatawillestimateusingthematsize
command;thenumbershouldbegreaterthanorequaltothetotalnumberofvariablesintheregression.
setmatsize150
predict
Calculatesthepredictedvalueforeachobservationusingthecoefficientsfromthelastregression
estimatedandsavestheseasavariablecalledyhat:
predictyhat
Tocalculatetheresidualforeachobservationusingthemostrecentlyestimatedregressionmodeland
savetheseasavariablecalledehat:
predictehat,residual
test
CalculatesanFtestofajointhypothesisconcerningthecoefficientsinthemostrecently
estimatedlinearregressionmodel,inthiscasewiththenullhypothesisH0:age=sex=0:
testal_ethnicmad_gdppc

ESTIMATINGNONLINEARMODELS(LOGITANDPROBIT)
LOGIT
Estimatesamodelsuitableforadichotomousdependentvariable.Inthiscase,thevariable
chga_regimeequals1fordemocracyand0forautocracy.
logitchga_regimeal_ethnicmad_gdppc

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Ifyouwishtofindapredictedprobabilityforeachobservationbasedonthemostrecentmodelrunand
savetheseasavariablecalledphat:
predictphat

PROBIT
Estimatesamodelsuitableforadichotomousdependentvariable.Inthiscase,thevariable
chga_regimeequals1fordemocracyand0forautocracy.Ifyouwishtoestimatetheprobabilityof
chga_regimeconditionaluponal_ethnicmad_gdppc:
probitchga_regimeal_ethnicmad_gdppc
Ifyouwishtofindapredictedprobabilityforeachobservationbasedonthemostrecentmodelrunand
savetheseasavariablecalledphat:
predictphat

4.MAKINGGRAPHS
Stata8hasaGraphicsmenuthatletsyoucreategraphsfromawindowsmenu,asanalternativetousing
commandlanguage.TheGraphicsmenuisaparticularlyuserfriendlywayofcreatinggraphs,sincegraphs
containsomanyoptionsforlabels,axes,etc.TheGraphicsmenuisfairlyintuitivetousesimplypull
downthemenuandchoosethetypeofgraphyouwant.Theoptionsareselfexplanatory.Forthose
interestedinusingcommandlanguagetocreategraphs,someofthebasicsarecoveredbelow,andyou
canreplyonthegraphicsmanualformorecomplicatedcreations.AlsoSPSShasbetterandfarmore
flexiblegraphics.Youmaywanttoconsiderthisprogramforthisfunctionalone.Youcanalsocutand
pastetheresultsoftablesintoExcelforflexibleformatsandcontroloverelements.

HISTOGRAM
Thisisthedefaultwhenonlyonevariableisspecified:
histogramp_polity
Youcanalsodrawanormaldensityoverthehistogram:
histogramp_polity,normal
TohaveSTATAgraphonlycertainobservations,inthiscasethoseforwhichafricais1:
histogramp_polityifafrica==1,bin(30)
Toaddatitle:
histogramp_polity,title(PolityIVRatingofLiberalDemocracyinAfrica)

SCATTERPLOT
Thisisthedefaultiftwovariablesarespecified:
scatterwbgi_geewbgi_pse
Conditions,axes,titles,labelingandreferencelinescanbespecifiedasabove.Forexample:withlabels
scatterwbgi_geewbgi_pse,t1(Effectivenessbystability)mlabel(cname)

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scatterwbgi_geewbgi_pse,t1(Effectivenessbystability)
Afterperformingaregression,youmaywanttographpredictedandactualvaluesofthedependent
variableagainsttheindependentvariable:
scatteryhat1scatterwbgi_geewbgi_pse,xlabelylabelsymbol(o.)

BARGRAPHS
Thisisproducedwithagraphcommandfollowedbyonevariable.Asecondvariableisusedtodefine
groups.Toproduceagraphwithbarheightsrepresentingthemeanforeachgroup:
sortwbgi_gee
graphbar(mean)wbgi_gee,over(ht_region)
Conditions,yaxisoptions,mosttitles,andhorizontalreferencelinescanbespecifiedasdescribedabove
withregardtohistogram:
sortwbgi_gee
graphbar(mean)wbgi_gee,over(africa)t1(PoliticalStabilityinAfrica)t2(Title2)l1(MeanStability)
l2(AnotherTitle)yline(33000)

PRINTINGYOURGRAPH
Stataallowsyoutoprint(File|PrintGraph)andsave(File|SaveGraph)yourgraphs.Theeasiestwayto
incorporateyourgraphintoaWorddocumentistocopythegraphtotheclipboardusingEdit|Copy
Graphandthenpasteitintoyourdocument.Rememberthatallgraphsshouldhaveaclearheadline,to
illustrateyourreport,withafullnotebelowspecifyingthesourceofthedataandanynotesexplaining
variables.Allgraphsshouldbeselfcontainedwithoutlookingfurtherinyourreport.

5.UTILITIES
VIEWINGTHEDATA
Onceyouhaveopenedadataset,youmaywishtolookatthevariablesandobservationsinspreadsheet
format.Stataprovidestwowaystodothis,browseandedit.Thebrowsecommandletsyouseethe
databutnotmakechanges,whereastheeditcommandallowsyoubothtobrowseandtomakechanges.
Itisprobablybesttousebrowseunlessyouactuallyintendtomakechangestoyourdatamanually;
otherwiseyoumayaccidentallychangesomethingandruinyourdata.
Tobrowse,enterbrowseintotheCommandwindoworselecttheBrowseicon(thirdfromtheright,a
spreadsheetwithamagnifyingglassonit).Toedit,entereditintotheCommandwindoworselectthe
Editicon(fourthfromtheright,aspreadsheetwithnomagnifyingglass).

CREATINGANDSUBMITTINGADOFILE
AlthoughStatacanberuninteractivelybyjusttypingonecommandatatime,Statacommandscanalso
besubmittedinbatchesbyusingadofile.AdofileissimplyatextfilewhichcontainsaseriesofStata
commands.YouentertheStatacommandsinthesameorderasyouwouldentertheminteractively,and
Statathenrunsthesecommandsautomaticallyinsteadofyourhavingtotypetheminlinebyline.
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Foryourproblemsets,itisstronglyrecommendedthatyouusedofiles.Someoftheproblemsetswill
requiremanyStatacommands,anditisinevitablethatyouwillneedtomakechangesandrunthese
seriesofcommandsanumberoftimes.Whenyouhaveallofyourcommandsinasinglefile,itismuch
easiertogobacktothatfileandmakethenecessarychangesthantohavetoretypeeverycommand.
CreatingaDofile
Tostartcreatingadofile,clickontheDofileeditorbutton(fifthfromtheright,lookslikeanenvelope
withapencilonit),choosetheDofileeditoroptionundertheWindowmenu,ortypedoeditinthe
Commandwindow.NotethatsinceadofileisawrittenlistofcommandsasenteredintheCommand
window,youcannotusetheStatamenuswithinadofile.Insteadyouneedtousethetyped(Command
window)commands.

6.CONVERTINGDATAFILES(EXCELTOSTATA)
TheeasiestwaytoconvertdatafilesistousethesoftwareprogramStatTransfer.Thisprogramisonthe
labcomputersandallowsyoutoconvertyourdatatoorfromavarietyofdifferentfileformats(Stata,SAS
Transport,Excel,SPSS,QuatroPro,FoxPro,etc.).
ToconvertafilefromExceltoStata:
a)ClickontheapplicationStatTransferintheDataAnalysisfolder.
b)SelectExcelWorksheetforInputFileType.
c)UseBrowsetoidentifytheExcelfileyouwanttoconvertfrom.(Ifthefirstrowofthe
worksheetcontainsthevariablenames,theprogramwillusetheseasthevariablenames.)
d)SelectStataVersion8astheOutputFileType.(SinceStata8.0isarecentrelease,itis
possiblethattheversionofStatTransferyoureusingwillnothaveStataVersion8asanoption.If
thisisthecase,saveitasaversion7file;youshouldstillbeabletoopenthefileinversion8.)
e)Typeinthepathandnameofthefileyouwishtocreate.
f)BegintheconversionbyclickingonBeginTransfer.
StataalsoallowsyoutoreadinbinaryandASCIIfilesdirectly.However,inmostcasesitiseasier
tofirstconvertyourdatatoaspreadsheetandthenconvertittoStatausingStatTransfer.

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SUMMARYOFSPSSANDSTATACOMMANDS
SPSSCommand

StataCommand(s)

SPSSCommand

StataCommand(s)

ADDFILES

append

GETFILE

use

AGGREGATE

collapse

GETSAS

fdause

ANOVA

anova

GRAPH

graph

AUTORECODE

destring
encode

IF

generate__if__

IGRAPH

graph

CASESTOVARS

reshapewide

INCLUDEFILE

do___

COMMENT

*
/**/

LIST

list

COMPUTE

generate
replace
egen

LOOP

forvalues

MATCHFILES

merge

LOGISTICREGRESSION logistic

CORRELATIONS

correlate
pwcorr

MEANS

tabulate__,
summarize(__)

CROSSTABS

tabulate
tab2

MISSINGVALUES

none

MIXED

xtmixed

DATALIST

infile
infix
insheet

NOMREG

mlogit

PLUM

ologit

DELETEVARIABLES

keep
drop

PROBIT

probit

RECODE

recode

DESCRIPTIVES

summarize

RECORDTYPE

noequivalent

DISPLAY

describe

REGRESSION

regress

DOCUMENT

notes

RELIABILITY

alpha

DOIF

xyzcommandif

RENAMEVARIABLES

rename

DOREPEAT

foreach

SAMPLE

sample

ECHO

display

SAVE

save

ERASE

erase

EXAMINE

tabulatex,
summarize(y)

SELECTIF

keepif
dropif

SORTCASES

sort

EXECUTE

noequivalent

SPLITFILE

by

EXPORT

noequivalent

FACTOR

factor

SUMMARIZE

tabulate___,
summarize(___)

FILELABEL

labeldata

xyzcommandif(___)

FILTER

xyzcommandif(___)

TEMPORARY.
SELECTIF(___).

FLIP

xpose

TTEST

ttest

FORMATS

format

FREQUENCIES

tabulate

VALUELABELS
VARIABLELABELS

NorrisIntroductiontoStata2009
15

Notes:

NorrisIntroductiontoStata2009
16