Stata Documentation and Resources

1. Stata’s Documentation and Help Files

The complete Stata 12 Documentation Set includes 19 volumes: a slim Getting Started manual (for example, Getting Started with Stata for Windows), the more extensive User’s Guide, the encyclopedic four-volume Base Reference Manual, and separate reference manuals on data management, graphics, longitudinal and panel data, matrix programming (Mata), multiple imputation, multivariate statistics, programming, structural equation modeling, survey data, survival analysis and epidemiological tables, and time series analysis. Getting Started helps you do just that, with the basics of installation, window management, data entry, printing, and so on. The User’s Guide contains an extended discussion of general topics, including resources and troubleshooting. Of particular note for new users is the User’s Guide section on “Commands everyone should know.” The Base Reference Manual lists all Stata commands alphabetically. Entries for each command include the full command syntax, descriptions of all available options, examples, technical notes regarding formulas and rationale, and references for further reading. Data management, graphics, panel data etc. are covered in the general references, but these complicated topics get more detailed treatment and examples in their own specialized manuals. A Quick Reference and Index volume rounds out the whole collection. Although the physical manuals fill a bookshelf, complete PDFs can be accessed within Stata at any time through Help > PDF Documentation, or through links if you type help followed by a specific command name.

When we are in the midst of a Stata session, it is easy to ask for onscreen help, which in turn can connect with the manuals. Selecting Help from the top menu bar invokes a drop-down menu of further choices, including specific commands, what’s new, online updates, the Stata Journal and user-written programs, or connections to Stata’s website (www.stata.com). Choosing Search allows keyword searching of Stata’s documentation, of Net resources, or both. Alternatively, choosing Contents (or typing help) allows us to look up how to do things by category. The help command is particularly useful when used with a command name. Typing help correlate, for example, causes a description of that command to appear in a Viewer window. Like the reference manuals, this onscreen help provides command syntax diagrams and complete lists of options. It also includes some examples, although often less detailed and without the technical discussions found in the manuals. The onscreen help has several advantages over the manuals, however. The Viewer allows searching for keywords in the documentation or on Stata’s website. Hypertext links take you directly to related entries. Onscreen help can also include material about recent updates, or the unofficial Stata programs that you have downloaded from Stata’s website or from other users.

2. Searching for Information

Selecting Help > Search > Search documentation and FAQs provides a direct way to search for information in Stata’s documentation or in the website’s FAQs (frequently asked questions) and other pages. Alternatively, we can search net resources including the Stata Journal. Search results in the Viewer window contain clickable hyperlinks leading to further information or original citations.

The search command can do similar things. One specialized use for a quick search command is to provide more information on those occasions when our command does not succeed as planned, but instead results in one of Stata’s cryptic numerical error messages. For example, table is a Stata command, but it requires information about what exactly we want in our table. If we mistakenly type table by itself, Stata responds with the error message and cryptic “return code” r(100):

. table

varlisl required

r(100)

Clicking on the return code r(100) in this error message brings up a more informative note. We could also find this note by typing search rc 100. Type help search for more about this command.

3. StataCorp

The mailing or physical address is

StataCorp

4905 Lakeway Drive

College Station, TX 77845 USA

Telephone access includes an easy-to-remember 800 number.

telephone: 1-800-782-8272 (or 1-800-STATAPC) U.S.

                  1-800-248-8272 Canada

                  1-979-696-4600 other International

fax:            1-979-696-4601

For orders, licensing, and upgrade information, you can contact StataCorp by e-mail at

service@stata.com

or visit their website at

http://www.stata.com

Stata Press also has its own website, containing information about Stata publications including the datasets used for examples.

http://www.stata-press.com

The refereed Stata Journal has become an important resource as well.

http://www.stata-journal.com

Stata’s main website, www.stata.com, provides extensive user resources, starting with pages describing Stata products in detail, how to order Stata, and many kinds of user support such as:

FAQs — Frequently asked questions and their answers. If you are puzzled by something and can’t find the answer in the manuals, check here next — it might be a FAQ. Example questions range from basic questions such as “How can I convert other packages’ files to Stata format data files?” to more technical queries like “How do I impose the restriction that rho is zero using the heckman command with full ml?”

Updates — Online updates within major versions are free to registered Stata users. These provide a fast, simple way to obtain the latest enhancements, bug fixes, etc. for your current version. Instead of going to the website you can ask within Stata whether updates exist for your version, and initiate the update process by typing the command

. update query

Technical support — Technical support can be obtained by sending e-mail messages to

tech-support@stata.com

Responses tend to be prompt and helpful. Before writing for technical help, though, you should check whether your question is a FAQ.

Training — Enroll in web-based NetCourses on selected topics such as Introduction to Stata, Introduction to Stata Programming, or Advanced Stata Programming.

Stata News — The Stata News contains information about software features, current NetCourses, recent issues of the Stata Journal, and other topics.

Publications — Links to information about the Stata Journal, documentation and manuals, a bookstore selling books about Stata and other up-to-date statistical references, and Stata’s author support program for people writing new books about Stata. The following sections have more to say about the Stata Journal and Stata books.

Stata’s website hosts The Stata Blog,

http://blog.stata.com/

Users of social media might also find it entertaining and informative to follow Stata on Twitter (www.twitter.com) or like Stata on Facebook (www.facebook.com).

4. The Stata Journal

From 1991 through 2001, a bimonthly publication called the Stata Technical Bulletin (STB) served as a means of distributing new commands and Stata updates, both user-written and official. Accumulated STB articles were published in book form each year as Stata Technical Bulletin Reprints, which can be ordered directly from StataCorp. With the growth of the Internet, instant communication among users became possible. Program files could easily be downloaded from distant sources. A bimonthly printed journal and disk no longer provided the best avenues either for communicating among users, or for distributing updates and user-written programs. To adapt to a changing world, the STB had to evolve into something new.

The Stata Journal was launched to meet this challenge and the needs of Stata’s broadening user base. Like the old STB, the Stata Journal contains articles describing new commands by users along with unofficial commands written by StataCorp employees. New commands are not its primary focus, however. The Stata Journal also contains refereed expository articles about statistics, book reviews, tips on using Stata, and a number of interesting columns, including Speaking Stata by Nicholas J. Cox, on effective use of the Stata programming language. The Stata Journal is intended for novice as well as experienced Stata users. For example, here are the contents from the June 2012 issue.

Articles and columns

“A robust instrumental-variables estimator,” R. Desbordes, V. Verardi

“What hypotheses do ‘nonparametric’ two-group tests actually test?” R.M. Conroy

“From resultssets to resultstables in Stata,” R.B. Newson

“Menu-driven X-12-ARIMA seasonal adjustment in Stata,” Q. Wang, N. Wu

“Faster estimation of a discrete-time proportional hazards model with gamma frailty,” M.G. Farnworth

“Threshold regression for time-to-event analysis: The stthreg package,” T. Xiao, G.A. Whitmore, X. He, M.-L.T. Lee

“Fitting nonparametric mixed logit models via expectation-maximization algorithm,” D. Pacifico

“The S-estimator of multivariate location and scatter in Stata,” V. Verardi, A. McCathie

“Using the margins command to estimate and interpret adjusted predictions and marginal effects,” R. Williams

“Speaking Stata: Transforming the time axis,” N.J. Cox Notes and Comments

“Stata tip 108: On adding and constraining,” M.L. Buis

“Stata tip 109: How to combine variables with missing values,” P.A. Lachenbruch

“Stata tip 110: How to get the optimal k-means cluster solution,” A. Makles

Software Updates

The Stata Journal is published quarterly. Subscriptions can be purchased by visiting www.stata- journal.com. The www.stata-journal.com archives list contents of back issues, which you can order individually; articles three years old or more can be downloaded for free. Of historical interest, a special issue on the occasion of Stata’s 20th anniversary (5(1), 2005) contains articles about the early development of Stata, and one about the first Stata book: “A short history of Statistics with Stata.”

Source: Hamilton Lawrence C. (2012), Statistics with STATA: Version 12, Cengage Learning; 8th edition.