This module will show how how to create and run .do files in Stata.
A do file contains one or more Stata commands and provides a convenient way to perform a series of Stata commands. Let’s have a look at dofile1.do using the type command.
type dofile1.do
use auto describe summarize tabulate mpg list make price mpg
These are called do files because you run them with the do command.
do dofile1.do
use auto
describe
Contains data from auto.dta
obs: 74
vars: 12 17 Feb 1999 10:49
size: 3,108 (98.3% of memory free)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. make str17 %17s
2. price int %9.0g
3. mpg byte %9.0g
4. rep78 byte %9.0g
5. hdroom float %9.0g
6. trunk byte %9.0g
7. weight int %9.0g
8. length int %9.0g
9. turn byte %9.0g
10. displ int %9.0g
11. gratio float %9.0g
12. foreign byte %9.0g
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorted by:
summarize
Variable | Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
---------+-----------------------------------------------------
make | 0
price | 74 6165.257 2949.496 3291 15906
mpg | 74 21.2973 5.785503 12 41
rep78 | 69 3.405797 .9899323 1 5
hdroom | 74 2.993243 .8459948 1.5 5
trunk | 74 13.75676 4.277404 5 23
weight | 74 3019.459 777.1936 1760 4840
length | 74 187.9324 22.26634 142 233
turn | 74 39.64865 4.399354 31 51
displ | 74 197.2973 91.83722 79 425
gratio | 74 3.014865 .4562871 2.19 3.89
foreign | 74 .2972973 .4601885 0 1
tabulate mpg
mpg | Freq. Percent Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
12 | 2 2.70 2.70
14 | 6 8.11 10.81
15 | 2 2.70 13.51
16 | 4 5.41 18.92
17 | 4 5.41 24.32
18 | 9 12.16 36.49
19 | 8 10.81 47.30
20 | 3 4.05 51.35
21 | 5 6.76 58.11
22 | 5 6.76 64.86
23 | 3 4.05 68.92
24 | 4 5.41 74.32
25 | 5 6.76 81.08
26 | 3 4.05 85.14
28 | 3 4.05 89.19
29 | 1 1.35 90.54
30 | 2 2.70 93.24
31 | 1 1.35 94.59
34 | 1 1.35 95.95
35 | 2 2.70 98.65
41 | 1 1.35 100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
Total | 74 100.00
list make price mpg
make price mpg
1. AMC Concord 4099 22
2. AMC Pacer 4749 17
3. AMC Spirit 3799 22
4. Buick Century 4816 20
5. Buick Electra 7827 15
6. Buick LeSabre 5788 18
7. Buick Opel 4453 26
8. Buick Regal 5189 20
9. Buick Riviera 10372 16
10. Buick Skylark 4082 19
11. Cad. Deville 11385 14
12. Cad. Eldorado 14500 14
13. Cad. Seville 15906 21
14. Chev. Chevette 3299 29
15. Chev. Impala 5705 16
16. Chev. Malibu 4504 22
17. Chev. Monte Carlo 5104 22
18. Chev. Monza 3667 24
19. Chev. Nova 3955 19
20. Dodge Colt 3984 30
21. Dodge Diplomat 4010 18
22. Dodge Magnum 5886 16
23. Dodge St. Regis 6342 17
24. Ford Fiesta 4389 28
25. Ford Mustang 4187 21
26. Linc. Continental 11497 12
27. Linc. Mark V 13594 12
28. Linc. Versailles 13466 14
29. Merc. Bobcat 3829 22
30. Merc. Cougar 5379 14
31. Merc. Marquis 6165 15
32. Merc. Monarch 4516 18
33. Merc. XR-7 6303 14
34. Merc. Zephyr 3291 20
35. Olds 98 8814 21
36. Olds Cutl Supr 5172 19
37. Olds Cutlass 4733 19
38. Olds Delta 88 4890 18
39. Olds Omega 4181 19
40. Olds Starfire 4195 24
41. Olds Toronado 10371 16
42. Plym. Arrow 4647 28
43. Plym. Champ 4425 34
44. Plym. Horizon 4482 25
45. Plym. Sapporo 6486 26
46. Plym. Volare 4060 18
47. Pont. Catalina 5798 18
48. Pont. Firebird 4934 18
49. Pont. Grand Prix 5222 19
50. Pont. Le Mans 4723 19
51. Pont. Phoenix 4424 19
52. Pont. Sunbird 4172 24
53. Audi 5000 9690 17
54. Audi Fox 6295 23
55. BMW 320i 9735 25
56. Datsun 200 6229 23
57. Datsun 210 4589 35
58. Datsun 510 5079 24
59. Datsun 810 8129 21
60. Fiat Strada 4296 21
61. Honda Accord 5799 25
62. Honda Civic 4499 28
63. Mazda GLC 3995 30
64. Peugeot 604 12990 14
65. Renault Le Car 3895 26
66. Subaru 3798 35
67. Toyota Celica 5899 18
68. Toyota Corolla 3748 31
69. Toyota Corona 5719 18
70. VW Dasher 7140 23
71. VW Diesel 5397 41
72. VW Rabbit 4697 25
73. VW Scirocco 6850 25
74. Volvo 260 11995 17
end of do-file
As you saw, the output of the do command is displayed to the screen one screen-full at a time. Sometimes you want to save all the output so you can examine it later or print it. You can do this with the log command. The do file dofile2.do uses the log command to store the output in the file test2.log and then closes the log file when it is done. Note that the first log command uses the replace option. This is done in case you do dofile2.do a second time. Without this option, Stata would refuse to log to an existing file.
*
Also, the command set more off is used at the top of dofile2.do and set more on at the bottom. The set more off tells Stata not to stop the output and say -more- when output exceeds one screen-full and set more on restores the pausing when the program ends.
type dofile2.do set more off log using test2 , replace use auto describe summarize tabulate mpg list make price mpg log close set more on quietly * temporarily close the log * quietly capture log close
As you would expect, the output is stored in test2.log. Let’s type it out to verify that.
type test2.log
use auto
describe
Contains data from auto.dta
obs: 74
vars: 12 17 Feb 1999 10:49
size: 3,108 (98.3% of memory free)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. make str17 %17s
2. price int %9.0g
3. mpg byte %9.0g
4. rep78 byte %9.0g
5. hdroom float %9.0g
6. trunk byte %9.0g
7. weight int %9.0g
8. length int %9.0g
9. turn byte %9.0g
10. displ int %9.0g
11. gratio float %9.0g
12. foreign byte %9.0g
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorted by:
summarize
Variable | Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
---------+-----------------------------------------------------
make | 0
price | 74 6165.257 2949.496 3291 15906
mpg | 74 21.2973 5.785503 12 41
rep78 | 69 3.405797 .9899323 1 5
hdroom | 74 2.993243 .8459948 1.5 5
trunk | 74 13.75676 4.277404 5 23
weight | 74 3019.459 777.1936 1760 4840
length | 74 187.9324 22.26634 142 233
turn | 74 39.64865 4.399354 31 51
displ | 74 197.2973 91.83722 79 425
gratio | 74 3.014865 .4562871 2.19 3.89
foreign | 74 .2972973 .4601885 0 1
tabulate mpg
mpg | Freq. Percent Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
12 | 2 2.70 2.70
14 | 6 8.11 10.81
15 | 2 2.70 13.51
16 | 4 5.41 18.92
17 | 4 5.41 24.32
18 | 9 12.16 36.49
19 | 8 10.81 47.30
20 | 3 4.05 51.35
21 | 5 6.76 58.11
22 | 5 6.76 64.86
23 | 3 4.05 68.92
24 | 4 5.41 74.32
25 | 5 6.76 81.08
26 | 3 4.05 85.14
28 | 3 4.05 89.19
29 | 1 1.35 90.54
30 | 2 2.70 93.24
31 | 1 1.35 94.59
34 | 1 1.35 95.95
35 | 2 2.70 98.65
41 | 1 1.35 100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
Total | 74 100.00
list make price mpg
make price mpg
1. AMC Concord 4099 22
2. AMC Pacer 4749 17
3. AMC Spirit 3799 22
4. Buick Century 4816 20
5. Buick Electra 7827 15
6. Buick LeSabre 5788 18
7. Buick Opel 4453 26
8. Buick Regal 5189 20
9. Buick Riviera 10372 16
10. Buick Skylark 4082 19
11. Cad. Deville 11385 14
12. Cad. Eldorado 14500 14
13. Cad. Seville 15906 21
14. Chev. Chevette 3299 29
15. Chev. Impala 5705 16
16. Chev. Malibu 4504 22
17. Chev. Monte Carlo 5104 22
18. Chev. Monza 3667 24
19. Chev. Nova 3955 19
20. Dodge Colt 3984 30
21. Dodge Diplomat 4010 18
22. Dodge Magnum 5886 16
23. Dodge St. Regis 6342 17
24. Ford Fiesta 4389 28
25. Ford Mustang 4187 21
26. Linc. Continental 11497 12
27. Linc. Mark V 13594 12
28. Linc. Versailles 13466 14
29. Merc. Bobcat 3829 22
30. Merc. Cougar 5379 14
31. Merc. Marquis 6165 15
32. Merc. Monarch 4516 18
33. Merc. XR-7 6303 14
34. Merc. Zephyr 3291 20
35. Olds 98 8814 21
36. Olds Cutl Supr 5172 19
37. Olds Cutlass 4733 19
38. Olds Delta 88 4890 18
39. Olds Omega 4181 19
40. Olds Starfire 4195 24
41. Olds Toronado 10371 16
42. Plym. Arrow 4647 28
43. Plym. Champ 4425 34
44. Plym. Horizon 4482 25
45. Plym. Sapporo 6486 26
46. Plym. Volare 4060 18
47. Pont. Catalina 5798 18
48. Pont. Firebird 4934 18
49. Pont. Grand Prix 5222 19
50. Pont. Le Mans 4723 19
51. Pont. Phoenix 4424 19
52. Pont. Sunbird 4172 24
53. Audi 5000 9690 17
54. Audi Fox 6295 23
55. BMW 320i 9735 25
56. Datsun 200 6229 23
57. Datsun 210 4589 35
58. Datsun 510 5079 24
59. Datsun 810 8129 21
60. Fiat Strada 4296 21
61. Honda Accord 5799 25
62. Honda Civic 4499 28
63. Mazda GLC 3995 30
64. Peugeot 604 12990 14
65. Renault Le Car 3895 26
66. Subaru 3798 35
67. Toyota Celica 5899 18
68. Toyota Corolla 3748 31
69. Toyota Corona 5719 18
70. VW Dasher 7140 23
71. VW Diesel 5397 41
72. VW Rabbit 4697 25
73. VW Scirocco 6850 25
74. Volvo 260 11995 17
log close
In addition to the do command, there is also the run command. If we type run dofile2.do, it does the same thing as do test2.log, except that it runs silently, as you see below.
quietly * temporarily close the log * quietly capture log close
You can write do files using the Stata do file editor. You can bring up the editor by typing doedit and then the name of the file. For example, you can edit dofile1.do by typing doedit dofile1.do.
You can run the program by clicking the menu Tools-Do. You can mark part of the program and click Tools-Do to run just that part of the program.
Summary
*
A typical do file would be a sequence of commands like this.
set more off log using test2 , replace use auto describe summarize tabulate mpg list make price mpg log close set more on
To run do files, you can type. do test1.do
executes the Stata commands in test1.do, displays output. run test1.do
executes the Stata commands in test1.do, but displays no output.
To edit/make do files, you can type. doedit test1.do
brings up do file editor with test1.do in it (windows only). doedit
brings up do file editor for a new file (windows only)
Creating and running .do files in Stata