Stata

Overview

Stata is a general-purpose statistical software package. Version 12 is installed on the CSF. Stata may be used in batch mode and interactively, via the GUI, on the CSF. Use of Stata via batch mode is strongly preferred.

Restrictions on Use

Only those users who are either in Professor Jane Worthington’s group or the Faculty of Humanities and AMBS may use this software (further details below). Access to the software is restricted by Unix groups.

All users must abide by the license agreement. Important points to note are:

• Only staff and students of The University of Manchester are permitted to use the software.
• Usage only for academic work is permitted. Usage for commercial work including commercially funded grants is not permitted

Please contact its-ri-team@manchester.ac.uk to request access.

Set up procedure

Load one of the following modulefiles below according to which group you are in:

• Prof. Jane Worthington’s group

  # Latest version (version 13.1 Update 2015-Dec-03)
  module load apps/binapps/stata/13-jw01
  
  # Older versions (version 13.0 base 2013-Jul-02)
  module load apps/binapps/stata/13-jw01-130702
  
  # Version 12
  module load apps/binapps/stata/12
  

• Humanities and AMBS

  # Version 14
  module load apps/binapps/stata/14-160201 <-- apps/binapps/stata/14 loads this version
  module load apps/binapps/stata/14-151007 
  

Running the application

There are several stata executables available on CSF:

stata               # IC version (standard, medium data)
stata-sm            # SM verison (small data)
stata-se            # SE version (single core, big data)
stata-mp            # MP version (multicore, big data)

Full information on the differences between these versions (e.g., number of variables they can process, size of data) is available at http://www.stata.com/manuals13/u5.pdf.

You should also consult the stata manual for guidance on managing memory: http://www.stata.com/manuals13/u6.pdf.

Please do not run stata on the login node.

Example — serial batch job:

Suppose that you have a Stata .do file, which you wish to run in batch mode, called my_file.do. Then write a job submissions script with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
#$ -S /bin/bash
#$ -cwd
#$ -V

stata -b do my_file.do

Assuming that the submission script is called my_stata.qsub, then to submit the job

qsub my_stata.qsub

To run the SM or SE version simply change the exectuable in the above script.

Example — parallel batch job:

Suppose that you have a Stata .do file, which you wish to run in batch mode on 8 cores, called my_file.do. Then write a job submissions script with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
#$ -S /bin/bash
#$ -cwd
#$ -V
#$ -pe smp.pe 8

stata-mp -b do my_file.do

Assuming that the submission script is called my_stata.qsub, then to submit the job

qsub my_stata.qsub

Installing Modules with ssc

Additional stata packages/modules can be installed using the ssc command in stata. You'll need to configure stata to use the University proxy as follows:

1. Start the graphical version of stata using:

   xstata

   This can be done on the login node but only for downloading and installing packages - you must not use stata on the login node once the package has installed.

2. Select the menus: Edit->Preferences->General Preferences
3. Select Internet in the list on the left hand side
4. Tick Connect through a proxy server and make the following settings:
5. HTTP Server: webproxy.its.manchester.ac.uk
6. Port: 3128

You should then be able to run the ssc install command in the stata GUI. For example to install the parmest package:

. ssc install parmest

Stata should report it is downloading the file and installing.

Further information

There are many excellent Web-based resources which offer help on Stata. Many of these are mentioned at the Stata Web site on their Resources for learning Stata page.

Updates

None since installation in May 2013.