. syllabus
Here is a copy of the syllabus .
. file access
To access PDF files, get a free copy of Adobe Reader.
To open ZIP files, get a free copy of ZIP Readers for Windows or OSX
. class materials
You can download the class materials for each week in a .ZIP file.
Each ZIP file contains the following types of files:
1. Lecture Slides**
a. LECTURE.smcl - which contains the class lecture slides. .smcl files are slides that run interactively in Stata; that is, you can click the blue text in these slides, and it will run the commands in the "Results" window in Stata.
To view & use these slides, extract the files from the zip file and double click the "LECTURE.smcl" slide--it will open in Stata automatically (this must be done on a computer with Stata installed...if you do not have Stata, you can use the PDF version of the slides).
b. Please ignore the "ignore" folder as it contains behind-the-scenes files to make some of the slides and class examples work. Also ignore the "_MACOSX" folder as it is just a system folder created by macs when zipping folders.
Here's what the Stata .smcl slide looks like:
Use the arrows "<<<" and ">>>" to navigate from one slide to the next. Click "TOC" at the top of the slide to return to the Table of Contents slide.
2. Homework Materials
3. Example Datasets & Do-files for the lecture or homework
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. Viewing Slides
**You need to download the file "slideviewer.ado" which is a Stata program that allows you to view and advance through the LECTURE.smcl slides.
Get -slideviewer- from SSC by typing into your Command window:
ssc install slideviewer, replace
___________
Alternatively, copy this code into your Stata command window and press return:
cap mkdir `"`c(sysdir_personal)'"'
copy "http://eab-adofiles.googlecode.com/files/slideviewer.ado" `"`c(sysdir_personal)'/slideviewer.ado"', replace public
discard
OR:
Download it from the link below and then copy it to your ado path (probably C:\ado\personal\ (Windows) or \Users\username\Library\Application Support\Stata\ado\personal (Mac OSX)).
Download slideviewer.ado
Topics
Session 1 – Introduction to Stata [Jan 18] Learning Objectives: Stata setup, interface, windows; Resources and help files; Do Files and Editors; Loading, importing, converting, and inputing data; Listing and browsing data; Variable and data storage types/formats; syntax rules introduction.
Reading: Juul Sections 1 and 2 and Appendix A & C;
Review “A Sample Stata Session” from the Stata website: http://www.stata.com/capabilities/session.html ;
(Acock Sections 1 and 2)
Class Materials
Download Class Lecture and Homework (BE SURE TO UNZIP AND EXTRACT THIS FOLDER!!):
Week 1 Materials
Other Information
a) Read through the [GS] (getting started with stata) manual entry here:
http://www.stata.com/bookstore/pdf/gsw_samplesession.pdf
or by typing -help gs- in the Stata command window and opening the "Starting stata - sample session" module.
b) Tips on importing data into Stata.
First off, a good general rule to remember is to use -insheet- with raw, ASCII formatted text files like .csv or .txt. These are files that you can open directly in notepad (or textedit for Mac OSX) and all you see is the data and the delimiter (like a comma or tab). You should use -import excel- (a compound command) to import MS Excel files (.xls(x)) files. For any other file type (which are less prevalent), consult the -help import- documentation. Excel files cannot be read into -insheet- because -insheet- is programmed to parse raw text/ascii data -- that is, it cannot handle the structure/macro/formatting instructions that are in the preamble of proprietary formatted data like .xls(x) or SAS data.
To help clarify this issue, and cover a few other Stata basics, I've created a 4-slide tutorial that is below (be sure to extract these files from the .zip file in order to run it).
This tutorial is OPTIONAL, but I think it is useful for understanding how to (1) manage Stata preferences (2) understand importing data into Stata and (3) to practice listing and browsing data in Stata. *In particular, Slide 3 Part 2 has some more detail on how to import many different types of data formats and some tips on how to deal with difficult or oddly-formatted (or corrupt) datasets you might encounter (though rare). We'll discuss data importing a bit more in class next week, but let me know of any questions/issues you have about this.
Download the tutorial slides.
- Do-file to create HW1 Answer key (warning, do-file uses TeX to generate file)
Topics
Syntax rules; logic and condition qualifiers; more on data import & saving; variable manipulation (conversions and cleaning variables); sort and order variables; weighting; do files and log files to manage and track workflow.
Reading: Re-read material from Session 1; Juul Sections 3, 4, 5, and 6; (Acock Section 4).
Class Materials
(BE SURE TO UNZIP AND EXTRACT THIS FOLDER!!):
Download Class Lecture Slides
Download Homework Assignment #2
Other Information
1) If you haven't already, I suggest you spend some time going through the 'tutorial' described in Session 1 (above)
Homework Assignment 2 Answer Key Do-file (rough version, not cleaned up)
Topics
recoding and rescaling data; labeling variables and values; exporting data to other programs; generating variables using formulas and functions; recoding, replacing, and dropping data; explicit subscripting, the “by” construct/prefix.
Readings:
Juul 7, 8; (Acock Section 3)
Cox, NJ 2007. Speaking Stata: Making it count. Stata Journal 7(1).
http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=pr0029
Cox, NJ 2002. Speaking Stata: How to move step by: step. 2(1).
http://www.statajournal.com/sjpdf.html?articlenum=pr0004
Class Materials
(BE SURE TO UNZIP AND EXTRACT THESE FOLDERS!)
Download Class Slides here
Download the Session 3 Tutorial here
Other Information
Download the logging program here and paste it in your '/ado/personal/' folder:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/428249/tutorial_logging.dlg
Topics
Comparing datasets, append/merge/combine data; transpose/reshape data; collapse and aggregate data
Readings: Juul 9, 10
Class Materials
Download the Lecture Slides AND Homework Assignment #3 here. (2.3MB download)
Other Information
1. slideviewer update
-slideviewer.ado- is now available from SSC. To install from SSC, type into the Command Window:
ssc install slideviewer, replace
2. Homework 3 Supplemental/Practice Exercise:
Some students have requested more practice data/exercises for combining data. Here is an exercise to clean and combine hospital, patient, and physician records. The instructions are included in the .txt file in this zip file (be sure to extract all these files).
Click to Download HW3 Supplement Exercises here.
Update: Here is another HW3 Supplemental Exercise (Supplemental Exercise #2) for practicing data combinations.
3. Homework 3 Answer Key Do-file (click to download)
Topics
Programming: Macros (global/local); data management programming; looping; tokenizing lists; ado-files; automating tasks with scripting/programs
Reading: Juul Section 18;
Cox, NJ. 2001. How to repeat yourself without going mad. Stata Journal 1(1). http://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.html?articlenum=pr0003
Cox, NJ 2003. Speaking Stata: Problems with lists. Stata Journal 3(2).
http://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.html?articlenum=pr0009
Read through http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/lang/ifqualifier.html
Class Materials
Click here to download (BE SURE TO UNZIP & EXTRACT THESE FILES TO RUN THEM)
Other Information
REMINDER:
-slideviewer.ado- is now available from SSC. To install from SSC, type into the Command Window:
ssc install slideviewer, replace
Topics
Summary and Descriptive tables
Class Materials
Download Session 6 Lecture Materials here
Download Homework Assignment #4
Other Information
Topics
Stata Graphs and Plots
Class Materials
Download Session 6 Lecture Materials here
Other Information
Next class is the in-class Mid-term exam.
Click here for the answer guide for the mid-term exam:
Click here for the Mid-Semester Recap Lecture Materials
Topics: Variable Comparisons, Distributions, and Hypothesis Testing
Click to download the Lecture & Tutorial Materials.
Note: You should double click to open the LECTURE.smcl file to view this lecture. There are other supplementary datasets and do-files in this main folder, but you will be prompted to use those files at different points during the lecture/tutorial.
Keep notes on the parts of this tutorial/lecture that are troublesome, and we'll discuss them during class next week.
Click to download the Homework 5 Materials.
Click Here to download the HW Answer key.
Topics: Random Data, Stratified & Case-control Analysis, Working with Groups/Panels
Materials: Click here to download the lecture materials
Update:
Click to download the Log file from Class
Topic: Inference (Anova, Regression, Exporting Estimates Tables)
Class Materials and HW 6: Click Here
Topic: NHIS data exploration
Class Materials: Click Here
Topic: NHIS data exploration, Part 2
Class Materials:
Download Final Exam Here
Download the Final Exam ANSWER KEY Here