Summary of survey software: Stata

Vendor

StataCorp

Types of designs that can be accommodated.

Types of estimands and statistical analyses that can be accommodated.

There are about currently about 50 Stata commands for various analyses of survey data, including the following analyses and others:

Restrictions on number of variables or observations.

Maximum number of observations is 2,147,483,647, which in reality will be limited by computer RAM (virtual memory can be used, but commands run slower). Maximum number of variables is 32,767 with Stata/SE and 2047 with Intercooled Stata.

Primary methods used for variance estimation.

General description of the "feel" of the software.

Stata is a complete statistical software package with full statistical, data management, and graphical capabilities. It can be run interactively or in batch mode, and is fully programmable. The survey commands are part of the standard software package. Initially, data can be read in from ASCII files and a Stata-format data file created; or data in other file formats can be translated to Stata format using a stand-alone software package (Stat/Transfer or DBMS/Copy). Support can be obtained from the vendor, or through an active mailing list. A huge depository of user contributed modules (over 1000) is available online at Statistical Software Components Archive. Samping capabilities are limited to SRS, although there is a number of user-contributed routines for PPS sampling. The manuals, although bulky, are extremely informative, and may serve as an introductory reading.

Platforms on which the software can be run.

Software is distributed as precompiled object program. Updates are distributed through http protocol; the minor updates include the script ("ado") and help files, and are usually issued once in two-three weeks; the major updates to the executable file are usually made approximately once in a quarter. The software checks the availability of updates on startup. Current version is Stata 10 (as of June 2007). Multiprocessor parallel processing version of Stata is available.

Availability, pricing and terms.

One-time purchase with perpetual license. Upgrade purchases are optional. Generous academic discount. Volume discounts and student discounts. Different "flavors" depending on the data set size requirements, and parallel processing capabilities. Example: University price for one single-user copy: from $540 for the basic IC version and basic documentation set to $985 for extended SE version and full documentation set.

Contact information.

StataCorp
4905 Lakeway Drive
College Station, TX 77845
800-782-8272 (U.S.)
800-248-8272 (Canada)
979-696-4600 (Worldwide)
979-696-4601 (Fax)
E-mail: stata@stata.com
Web site: http://www.stata.com

Additional information

This software is discussed in the review article from The Survey Statistician. Other relevanat Stata survey links:


Thanks to Stas Kolenikov for major contributions to this page.

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