Stata learning resources and training courses

This page provides updates about available learning resources and upcoming Stata training courses in South Africa.

Getting Started

The Introduction to Stata Basics webpage is a comprehensive resource designed to assist new and existing Stata users in mastering the software. It offers structured guidance on various aspects of using Stata, categorised into sections mirroring Stata’s capabilities: data management, graphics, data analysis, and reporting. Each section features worked examples that show command syntax, usage of common options, and interpretation of results, alongside deeper insights to ensure thorough understanding.

Key topics covered include:

• Basics: Starting with Stata, finding help, and using example datasets.
• Importing and Exporting Data: Methods to handle data from Excel, CSV, SPSS, SAS, and websites, including Federal Reserve Economic Data.
• Data Manipulation: Techniques for labelling, customising display formats, rounding data, converting data types, and creating new variables.
• Immediate Commands: Calculators for statistical tests and measures.
• Visualisation: Creating pie charts, bar charts, box plots, histograms, and scatterplots.
• Regression Modelling and Visualisation: Guidance on simple linear regression, using factor-variable notation, and exploring interactions with the `margins` and `marginsplot` commands.

Visit the Introduction to Stata Basics webpage to start learning and enhancing your Stata skills.

Stata learning resources

Learn Stata by enrolling for one of StataCorp's convenient web-based courses or find short courses offered by independent sources in your country.

Available NetCourses

• NetCourse 101: Introduction to Stata
  An introductory 6-week course that teaches how to use Stata interactively.
• NetCourse 120: Statistical Graphics Using Stata
  An introductory 6-week course that teaches Stata's statistical graphics features in the context of data analysis.
• NetCourse 151: Introduction to Stata Programming
  An introductory 6-week course that teaches Stata data-analysis programming to those who have a basic knowledge of using Stata interactively.
• NetCourse 251: Writing Your Own Stata Commands
  An advanced 7-week course that teaches how to add new commands.
• NetCourse 461: Univariate Time Series with Stata
  An introductory 7-week course that teaches the practical aspects of time series that are most needed by practitioners and applied researchers.
• NetCourse 471: Introduction to Panel Data Using Stata
  An introductory 6-week course that teaches the practical and conceptual aspects that are fundamental for practitioners and applied researchers who want to perform rigorous panel-data analysis.
• NetCourse 631: Introduction to Survival Analysis Using Stata
  An introductory 7-week course that teaches concepts such as censoring, truncation, hazard rates, and survivor functions, as well as the analysis of survival data.

For more information please visit the Stata website.

Free, short and convenient webinars to learn about Stata from the experts. Visit the webinar page on Stata’s website to see the available webinars.

Upcoming specialised webinars:

Introduction to time-series commands in Stata 

24 September 2024 10:00 AM CDT (3:00 PM UTC)

This webinar showcases some of the most commonly used tools for working with time-series data in Stata. We start by demonstrating how to import data, set their time-series structure, and explore using time-series plots and correlograms. We will work examples using ARIMA and ARCH models and use our estimates to produce forecasts. Other examples will call for vector autoregression (VAR), where we will model the relationship of multiple endogenous processes and study the implications of our model with impulse–response plots.

Power and sample size: The basics 

16 October 2024 11:00 AM CDT (4:00 PM UTC)

This webinar will introduce the concepts and jargon of power and sample size calculations, such as alpha levels, power, and minimum detectable effect sizes. We will do several basic calculations manually and then demonstrate how to replicate these calculations using Stata's power commands. Next we will demonstrate how to create tables and graphs for power, sample size, and minimum detectable effect sizes for a range of values. We will conclude with a discussion of strategies to increase statistical power.

Reproducible reporting: Creating customized reports in Word, Excel, and PDF 

12 November 2024 11:00 AM CST (5:00 PM UTC) 

Stata's putdocx, putpdf, and putexcel commands allow you to create customized Word documents, PDFs, and Excel files with Stata results and graphs. For example, with putdocx you can create reports in Word that include large blocks of text, headers, footers, and chapter and page numbers.

We demonstrate how to create Word documents with Stata summary statistics, regression tables, and graphs. Find out how to interact Stata's features with Word's features and how to automate your work when you want to regularly update reports. You will also see how easy it is to use putpdf and putexcel to similarly create reproducible reports in PDF and Excel formats.

Survival analysis using Stata 

4 December 2024 11:00 AM CST (5:00 PM UTC)

Survival analysis allows researchers to investigate duration outcomes—outcomes measuring the time to an event of interest. For example, you might be comparing time to death for individuals taking a placebo and those taking a new medication. You might also be measuring the time to employment or bankruptcy. There are some complications that arise when analyzing this type of data: the event of interest may not be observed, individuals might enter the study at different times, and some individuals may not be observed continuously throughout the study. These inherent complications have given rise to a variety of models used to analyze this type of data.

We demonstrate Stata's specialized tools for survival analysis. We will give you a tour of the summary statistics, graphs, models, and diagnostics that are available in Stata for analyzing survival-time data. You will learn how to obtain the mean survival time, incidence rates, and perform tests of equality. Are you interested in modeling survival as a function of covariates? Gabriela will show you how to fit different regression models and adjust for within-group correlation. You will learn that even when your data have competing failure events or when the exact time of the event of interest is unknown, you can still analyze your data in Stata. You will also see how you can visualize the results of your model and graphically assess model fit.

The Stata News User's corner highlights interesting, useful, or just plain fun user contributions. Visit the User’s Corner on the Stata website for complete archive of all contributions.

Stata has a large collection of video tutorials freely available from the official Stata YouTube channel.

Get started with a quick tour of Stata:

Handy reference sheets covering Stata syntax, data processing, programming, etc.

Visit https://www.stata.com/bookstore/stata-cheat-sheets to download.

Upcoming Stata training courses in South Africa

Keep an eye on our website for updates on future training courses as they become available.