We have several methods of combining text and Stata code available in the SSCC.
- As of Stata 15, Stata has built in support for dynamic markdown.
- R/RStudio has support for Stata in markdown documents, via the
knit()function. - Jupyter Lab can support a mix of Stata and markdown.
The Jupyter options require some set up by you, the user, plus one step by our system administrators (not yet implemented, 11 Dec 2018, so ask the Help Desk). The RStudio and Stata options are easier to use if you install an additional package as well. None of these is all that difficult to set up on Winstat.
The main benefit of using a Jupyter notebook is that you can edit and run your code live. If you are thinking your way through a problem, coding and writing simultaneously, this will be a very convenient workflow. In Stata or in RStudio, you need to compile a document to see all the text, code, and output in the same place.
The main disadvantage of using a Jupyter notebook (on Winstat) is that each cell is a separate Stata session (until our system adminstrators complete one extra step). So at the moment this is really only going to be useful for fairly simple Stata coding tasks.
(Jupyter can be set up to run separate cells through one continous Stata session, but this has not been implemented on the SSCC Winstats or in the labs.)
One-time Set Up
You will first need to install IPyStata. This is done outside of Jupyter, from a command prompt. On Winstat, open the Anaconda command prompt (from the Start Menu) and type the command
pip install -- user ipystat
This may additionally tell you to install the `msgpack` module. Next, open a Jupyter notebook in order to run some Python commands. This, too, is a one-time set up.
import ipystata
from ipystata.config import config_stata
config_stata('C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata15\StataSE-64.exe', force_batch=True)
# the force_batch is for now
Finally, Stata Notebooks
Having done the set up steps above, you are ready to write Jupyter notebooks that run Stata code.
When you open a new notebook, you open it with the Python kernel. Your first step is then to invoke ipystata in a preliminary cell.
import ipystata
After this, you include %%stata at the beginning of any cell that has Stata code.
%%stata
display "Hello, printed from Stata"
Hello, printed from Stata
%%stata
sysuse auto
regress mpg price
(1978 Automobile Data)
Source | SS df MS Number of obs = 74
-------------+---------------------------------- F(1, 72) = 20.26
Model | 536.541807 1 536.541807 Prob > F = 0.0000
Residual | 1906.91765 72 26.4849674 R-squared = 0.2196
-------------+---------------------------------- Adj R-squared = 0.2087
Total | 2443.45946 73 33.4720474 Root MSE = 5.1464
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mpg | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
price | -.0009192 .0002042 -4.50 0.000 -.0013263 -.0005121
_cons | 26.96417 1.393952 19.34 0.000 24.18538 29.74297
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, keep in mind that each cell is run as a separate Stata batch.
%%stata
regress mpg weight
no variables defined
r(111);
end of do-file
r(111);
What you need for this second example is really
%%stata
sysuse auto
regress mpg weight
(1978 Automobile Data)
Source | SS df MS Number of obs = 74
-------------+---------------------------------- F(1, 72) = 134.62
Model | 1591.9902 1 1591.9902 Prob > F = 0.0000
Residual | 851.469256 72 11.8259619 R-squared = 0.6515
-------------+---------------------------------- Adj R-squared = 0.6467
Total | 2443.45946 73 33.4720474 Root MSE = 3.4389
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mpg | Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
weight | -.0060087 .0005179 -11.60 0.000 -.0070411 -.0049763
_cons | 39.44028 1.614003 24.44 0.000 36.22283 42.65774
------------------------------------------------------------------------------