Stata (Statistical Package): Introduction

Prerequisites

Stata is a powerful general purpose statistical package.

This course is for beginners and fairly new users of the package. Basic concepts and use of Stata will be introduced. The main aim of the course is to give participants a foundation and some background. However statistical techniques are not covered (see note below).

The first session looks at an overview of the Stata system and getting data into Stata format and the second looks at reporting, graphing and analyses. It is strongly recommended for anyone likely to use Stata for any but the very simplest analysis of the very simplest data.

• Familiarity with Windows to the level covered by the Computing Service's introductory/Level 1 courses
• Familiarity with simple statistical concepts.

Number of sessions: 2

• Introduction to user interface - menus, data views, and output formats
• Finding your way around the help system
• Simple data entry
• Importing data from other applications
• Understanding dialog boxes and output
• Creating and changing variables
• Reorganizing and reshaping data

• Tabulating outputs
• Using the graph generator
• Running basic analyses
• Sample investigations

Presentations, demonstrations and practicals.

Stata IC v. 10 on PWF Windows

• No attempt is made to teach statistical techniques, though simple examples are used to show the principles of Stata use. There is a self-teach course "Statistics for the Terrified" which may be useful to people who lack the background.
• Practicals will be run on PCs using Stata for Windows.

Two half day sessions

• Scientific Computing
• Statistical and Mathematical Software