Why Use Stata by Jeff Meyer. Like many people with graduate degrees, I have used a number of statistical software packages over the years. Through work and school I have used Eviews, SAS, SPSS, R and Stata. Some were more difficult to use than others but if you used them often enough you would become proficient to take on the task at hand though some packages required greater usage of George Carlins 7 dirty words. There was always one caveat which determined which package I used, which one my professor or my employer insisted that I use. But that all changed when I decided to start up my own consulting business. I use. But that all changed when I decided to start up my own consulting business. Eviews was quickly eliminated from the selection process due to its narrow focus. SAS came fully loaded but I had to be fully loaded with cash in order to afford it btw, Im not. So the final contenders were R, SPSS and Stata wow, three choices, just like the TV show International House Hunters. Why not RR had a lot to offer. I remembered a friends favorite saying, If its free, its for me. My biggest concern with R was remembering how to use it. Stata Download Student Version' title='Stata Download Student Version' />With the potential for infrequent use I might end up spending too much time relearning how to use it. Why not SPSSI had used SPSS at graduate school and had the student version on my desk top at home. I had read that SPSS was the choice of most social scientist. Graphs clients love graphs were easy to create, copy and paste into a Word document. If I forgot the codes I could always revert to the menus. So I decided to use SPSS. Environmental Ethics Issues And Possible Solutions Pdf. To begin learning the things they dont teach you in graduate school but you had better know if you dont want to make a fool of yourself, I started taking Karens workshops. The important topic of bootstrapping came up and I opened up SPSS to begin practicing. I believe I used five of George Carlins words when I discovered that it was not included in the student version of SPSS. I opened up Stata which I had on my desk top as well and found the option along with plenty of documentation on how to use it. I then took Karens workshop on Missing Data and quickly ran into problems of recreating her results due to the need for an add on module. I contacted SPSS and was told the missing data module was an additional 1,5. User interface. Stata has always emphasized a commandline interface, which facilitates replicable analyses. Starting with version 8. Stata has included a. Stata Download Student Version' title='Stata Download Student Version' />Once again I opened up Stata and found that everything that I needed was included in the version of Stata that I owned. Why Stata. Once I settled on using Stata as my primary statistical software package I realized how much it has to offer besides being less expensive. Like SPSS, Stata allows you to write code or use menus to perform your analysis. Stata has two primary menu tabs Graphics and Statistics. Within Statistics there are twenty one sub tabs and numerous tabs within those tabs. Within Graphics there are twenty one tabs as well you think the people at Stata like to play Black Jack. I admit, this can be a bit daunting and time consuming if you are trying to find a specific function. But wait, theres more. In the command box you can type help and what you are looking for. For example, if I want to run a logistic regression I simply type help logistic regression and documentation for running a logistic regression opens. Within the help guide is Menu which gives the path you take to use the menu method of running the command. In this case it is Statistics Binary outcomes Logistic regression. JPG' alt='Stata Download Student Version' title='Stata Download Student Version' />The key point here is I dont waste time trying to find what Im looking for. After running the command through the menus method the code shows up in the Review box. I can then copy and paste the command into a do file. A do file is the text document that allows you to submit more than one command to Stata at once. Stata allows you to have more than one do file opened at a time. This is a big plus because it makes it easy to copy and paste from other project do files into the current do file. Using do files is significantly quicker than using the menus if you have created template do files, especially for creating graphs. There are so many options for creating a graph. It takes less than a minute to copy from a template and paste the commands into your current project. Stata Download Student Version' title='Stata Download Student Version' />Stata is extremely efficient running repetitive analysis when incorporating macros and loops in a do file. This sounds like it may be difficult but its not. This will be discussed in a future blog post. How well is Stata support by Stata Corp On average Stata sends out updated files every two months with new features andor any fixes to reported glitches. The reference guide for Stata 1. The professional community also provides incredible support. Stata allows third party written commands also known as modules to be imported into the software. The website http ideas. Running a search for logistic returned 1. Deskjet 930C Driver For Windows 7 here. The bottom line is Stata will run every analysis that the other major statistical packages can, if not more. It is a very efficiently organized program to learn to use. Third party professionals are continuously offering new functions. Stata adds new features without charging a new version fee. All this and the added bonus is its reasonably priced and has no add on charges. Jeff Meyer is a statistical consultant, instructor and writer for The Analysis Factor. Zawapi. Com is a mobile toplist for mobile web sites. We have over 2000 registered sites. Learn more about JeffTagged as. Statistical Software.