Creating Stata datasets

• Input data from command line
• Input data saved from spreadsheets
• Read data using a dictionary
• Read any type of ASCII data
• Read and write data in the format required by the FDA for NDA submittals
• Read and write XML-formatted data files, including those produced by Microsoft Excel
• Convert datasets directly from other statistical packages, spreadsheets, and databases using third-party software

ODBC support

• Import data from any ODBC data source, such as Access, Excel, Postgres, or MySQL
• Export data to new or existing ODBC tables
• Execute raw SQL commands individually or in batches
• Support for ODBC on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Built-in spreadsheet editor

• For Windows, Mac, and Unix

Variables Manager

• Change storage types, names, and formats
• Add and edit value labels
• Attach notes to variables
• Filter variables

Data-management functions

• Mathematical and statistical functions
• String functions
• Regular expressions
• Date functions
• Time-series operators
• Random-number functions
• Matrix functions
• Programming functions

Data reorganization

• Row–column transposition
• Data reshaping
• Stacking of variables
• Collapsing into means, totals, etc.

Labels

• Dataset labels
• Variable labels
• Value labels (e.g., male and female for 0 and 1)
• Ability to switch between multiple sets of data, variable, and value labels
• Missing-value labels
• Support for multiple languages

Notes

• Extensive notes can be attached to a dataset

Data snapshots

• Allow multiple levels of undo to modified datasets

Sorting

• Ascending or descending sorts
• Multiple-key sorts
• Numeric and string sorts

Merging datasets

• Merge datasets
  • By key variables
  • By observations
• Join datasets
• Outer join
• Append datasets
• Append time series

Special datasets

• Panel data/longitudinal data
• Survival/duration data
• Time series
• Survey
• Multiple imputations

Utilities

• Compress (make dataset as small as possible without loss of accuracy)
• Formatted and unformatted disk I/O
• Zip-file support

Variable management

• Generation of new variables
• Replacement of existing variables
• Encoding and decoding string variables

Dataset reports

• Data signatures to verify the integrity of new data
• Flexible description of variables, labels, and types
• Codebooks for variables
• Value-label reports
• Duplicates and missing values

Variable types

• Byte
• Integer (int)
• Long
• Float
• Double
• String
• Dates
• Dates and times

Saved results

• Save results to disk for later use
• Store up to 300 sets of results in memory
• Create tables to compare results