Stata FAQ
Top 10 Questions about Stata
This page contains the top 10 problems/questions that we find that
people encounter when they first start using Stata. If you have further
questions, please see our other Stata pages or use our
consulting services so we may
help you further.1. How do I manipulate the windows? Sometimes the windows disappear, what
can I do?
The movies about the Stata 9 Graphical User Interface (for Windows) explains
more about this.
2. How do I change the font (PC version)?
The Stata Results window
has an icon in the top left corner (see below) that you can click and bring up
a menu to select the font. Below we show an arrow pointing to
this icon for the Review window. For other windows, you can right click
on the window and then a menu pops up allowing you to select the font. The
font changes you select are saved from one Stata session to the next. If you want to change the font for each window, you need to do this process
separately for each window, allowing you to choose a different font for each
window. 
3. How do I read a file that is over 1 megabyte?
By default, Stata can only read in a file that is up to 1 megabyte.
If you try to read a bigger file, you get an error, illustrated below.
use bigfile
no room to add more observations
r(901);
Before you read the file, use the set memory command to allocate
enough memory for the file. If the file is, for example, 9 megabytes
then you need to allocate at least 9 megabytes for the file (say we allocate
20 megabytes to give us room to add more variables). We illustrate this
below. set memory 20m
(20480k)
use bigfile
You can make these changes permanent like this. set memory 20m, permanent
4. When I run a regression or anova, I get an error "matsize
too small"
You can overcome this by using the set matsize command. The
highest setting is 800, illustrated below. set matsize 800
You can make these changes permanent like this. set matsize 800, permanent
5. Why can't I save the contents of the results window?
The results window stores just the most recent
results that you have created. It does not store all of the
results. If you want to copy selected parts of the output, see
How do I Copy Stata Output and Stata Graphs into
Word?If you want to save all of the results from
your Stata session, you need to start a log file. Say you want to
call the log c:\dissert.log, you can type the following at the start of
your Stata session.
log using c:\dissert.log
Then, go ahead and run all of your commands. When you are done, you can type.
log close
The results of all of your commands will be saved in the log
file (for this example, c:\dissert.log ).6. Can I make the results window hold more results?
Yes. Suppose you wanted the results window to hold up to 300,000 bytes, you
can use the following command
set scrollbufsize 300000
(set scrollbufsize will take effect the next time you launch Stata)
As the message indicates, the setting will not take effect until the next
time you launch Stata. However, that setting will be remembered every time you
launch Stata from that point forward.
7. Are my graphs saved in my log file? How do I save my graphs?
The log file does not save your graphs. There are a few ways that you
can save your graphs, but the most common way is to copy the graphs and paste
them into Microsoft Word, where they can be integrated into your
report/document. This is described at How do I Copy Stata Output and Stata Graphs into
Word?.8. How do I update my copy of Stata?
After you install Stata, you want to update it to get the
most recent updates. Once you are connected to the internet, you can
type
update all
Followed by
update swap
You can follow the onscreen instructions to complete the update process.
Since Stata is frequently updated, we recommend this every month.9. I have Stata 9 or 10, can I still use the Stata 7 version of the
graph commands?
Yes. You can do this three ways. First, is using
the graph7 command, for example
graph7 read write
or you can use the version 7 prefix, for example
version 7: graph read write
or you can use the version 7 command, for example
version 7
graph read write
graph read math
graph read science
version 8
10. I have Stata 10, can I save data so it can be used in Stata 9?
Yes, you can use the saveold command, for example
saveold mydata
and that file will be usable in Stata 7 (as well as Stata 8 and
Stata 9).
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