computer science

Stata

Stata is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stata rather than just read about it. In short: Stata (, STAY-ta, alternatively , occasionally stylized as STATA) is a general-purpose statistical software package developed by StataCorp for data manipulation, visualization, statistics, and automated reporting. It is used by researchers in many fields, including biomedicine, economics, epidemiology, and sociology.

Key takeaways

Stata belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stata to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stata from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Stata (, STAY-ta, alternatively , occasionally stylized as STATA) is a general-purpose statistical software package developed by StataCorp for data manipulation, visualization, statistics, and automated reporting. It is used by researchers in many fields, including biomedicine, economics, epidemiology, and sociology. Stata was initially developed by Computing Resource Center in California and the first version was released in 1985. In 1993, the company moved to College Station, Texas and was renamed Stata Corporation, now known as StataCorp. A major release in 2003 included a new graphics system and dialog boxes for all commands. Since then, a new version has been released once every two years. The current version is Stata 19, released in April 2025.

Technical overview and terminology

User interface From its creation, Stata has always employed an integrated command-line interface. Starting with version 8.0, Stata has included a graphical user interface which uses menus and dialog boxes to give access to many built-in commands. The dataset can be viewed or edited in spreadsheet format. From version 11 on, other commands can be executed while the data browser or editor is opened.

Data structure and storage Until the release of version 16, Stata could only open a single dataset at any one time. Stata allows for flexibility with assigning data types to data. Its compress command automatically reassigns data to data types that take up less memory without loss of information. Stata utilizes integer storage types which occupy only one or two bytes rather than four, and single-precision (4 bytes) rather than double-precision (8 bytes) is the default for floating-point numbers. Stata's proprietary output language is known as SMCL, which stands for Stata Markup and Control Language and is pronounced "smickle". Stata's data format is always tabular in format. Stata refers to the columns of tabular data as variables.

Data format compatibility Stata can import data in a variety of formats. This includes ASCII data formats (such as CSV or databank formats) and spreadsheet formats (including various Excel formats). Stata's proprietary file formats have changed over time, although not every Stata release includes a new dataset format. Every version of Stata can read all older dataset formats, and can write both the current and most recent previous dataset format, using the saveold command. Thus, the current Stata release can always open datasets that were created with older versions, but older versions cannot read newer format datasets. Stata can read and write SAS XPORT format datasets natively, using the fdause and fdasave commands. Some other econometric applications, including gretl, can directly import Stata file formats.

History The development of Stata began in 1984, initially by William (Bill) Gould and later by Sean Becketti. The software was intended to compete with statistical programs for personal computers such as SYSTAT and MicroTSP. Written in the C programming language, Stata was released for MS-DOS in 1985 with 44 commands. Since then, versions of Stata have been released for systems running Unix variants like Linux distributions, Windows, and MacOS. All Stata files are platform-independent.

There have been 19 major releases of Stata between 1985 and 2025 and additional code and documentation updates between major releases. In its early years, extra sets of Stata programs were sometimes sold as "kits" or distributed as Support Disks. With the release of Stata 6 in 1999, updates began to be delivered to users via the web. Hundreds of commands have been added to Stata in its 37-year history. Certain developments have proved to be particularly important and continue to shape the user experience today, including extensibility, platform independence, and the active user community.

Extensibility The program command was implemented in Stata 1.2, giving users the ability to add their own commands. ado-files followed in Stata 2.1, allowing a user-written program to be automatically loaded into memory. Many user-written ado-files are submitted to the Statistical Software Components Archive hosted by Boston College. StataCorp added an ssc command to allow community-contributed programs to be added directly within Stata. More recent editions of Stata allow users to call Python scripts using commands, as well as allowing Python IDEs like Jupyter Notebooks to import Stata commands. Although Stata does not support R natively, there are user-written extensions to use R scripts in Stata.

User community A number of important developments were initiated by Stata's active user community. The Stata Technical Bulletin, which often contains user-created commands, was introduced in 1991 and issued six times a year. It was relaunched in 2001 as the peer-reviewed Stata Journal, a quarterly publication containing descriptions of community-contributed commands and tips for the effective use of Stata. In 1994, a listserv began as a hub for users to collaboratively solve coding and technical issues; in 2014, it was converted into a web forum. In 1995, Statacorp began organizing user and developer conferences that meet annually. Only the annual Stata Conference held in the United States is hosted by StataCorp. Other user group meetings are held annually in the United States (the Stata Conference), the UK, Germany, and Italy, and less frequently in several other countries. Local Stata distributors host User Group meetings in their own countries.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stata

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stata claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stata before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stata ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stata

In research: Stata appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stata in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stata is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1985 software, Data mining and machine learning software, Data warehousing, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stata outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Stata in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stata means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stata out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stata in simple terms?

Why does Stata matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stata?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stata.