NetCourseNow^TM 151: Introduction to Stata Programming

Content: An introduction to Stata programming dealing with what most statistical software users mean by programming, namely, the careful performance of reproducible analyses. Through a combination of lectures, example applications, and carefully chosen problems, the course addresses the full range of methods and techniques necessary to be most productive in the Stata environment. Prerequisites: Stata 12 or Stata 11, installed and working Basic knowledge of using Stata interactively Internet web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari, installed and working (Course is platform independent) Price: $275   Enroll in NCNow151 (group rates) How is a NetCourseNow different from a regular NetCourse?

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Course content

Lecture 1: Organization of analysis

• Mechanics of using do-files, ado-files, and program define
• Programming as automating data-management and analysis
• Organization of multiple do-files
• Ensuring reproducibility
• Data verification (assert)
• Debugging (trace)
• Working with datasets too large to fit in memory
• Indexing (subscripting) observations
• assert as an alternative to branching
• Reading and processing relational datasets
• Consuming calculated results

Lecture 2: Macros, arguments, and looping

• Using macros to contain strings
• Using macros to contain numbers
• Using macros to pass and receive arguments with do-files
• Using macros to pass and receive arguments with programs
• Distinction between local and global macros
• Branching and looping
• Program style
• Shifting over lists
• Looping across observations
• Application: Listing data neatly (report writing and use of display)

Lecture 3: Examples and applications

• Do-files, ado-files, and programs: when to use which
• Complicated data management example: processing hospital admission/discharge data and merging with patient file
• Working with dates
• Working with dates and time of day
• Programming bootstrapped standard errors
• Programming Monte Carlo simulations
• Use of postfile to program bootstraps and simulations beyond the capabilities of bootstrap and simulate

Lecture 4: Ado-files

• Organizing files and directories
• Writing real ado-files: command to run analysis do-files
• Automatically logging analysis
• Putting time-and-date stamps on analyses
• Error handling
• Writing on-line help files
• Temporary variables
• Temporarily destroying data
• Temporary files
• Analysis-specific ado-files
• General-purpose ado-files
• Converting analysis-specific to general-purpose ado-files
• More on display and producing formatted output
• Parsing commands with syntax
• Version control

Enroll in NCNow151