A simple R -> Stata interface allowing the user to:
- execute Stata commands (both inline and from a
.dofile) from R; - pass a
data.frameto Stata; - return a
data.frameto R; - include Stata 'chunks' in knitr documents (however each chunk is independent from the others; feature tested with LaTeX/Linux).
install.packages('RStata')
In order to use this package you need to setup two options:
options("RStata.StataPath")
options("RStata.StataVersion")
Once done, the main function in the package is stata (see Examples below).
RStata.StataPath contains the path to Stata executable (Windows
user have to delete the extension .exe from the path ).
You can use
chooseStataBin()
to set this option the first time:
-
in Linux it searches for the 4 (cli) Stata binaries (
stata-mp,stata-se,stata,stata-sm) in the search path and prompt a menu to choose one; -
in Windows does a
file.choose(and a bit of manipulation, in Windows, to obtain a valid path). -
other system are not handled by
chooseStataBin(mainly because of my ignorance regarding both the system itself and Stata installation on it, but contributions are welcome).Mac users are a notable group: at this stage they should set the path for the command line executable (not the GUI app). Eg for a Stata13 SE installation in El Capitain (with default options) the path is
'/Applications/Stata/StataSE.app/Contents/MacOS/stata-se'. In other cases (Stata licenses, installation path and so on) the path could be slightly different (BTW, i've found the path 'exploring' the filesystem with a terminal, not the graphics explorer since it 'stops' at 'StataSE.app').
chooseStataBin set up RStata.StataPath accordingly to user advice and
return the path; but you may consider to put the path returned in
.Rprofile options for the next time you start R.
RStata.StataVersion is needed for right management of data export/import
to/from Stata. Eg, for Stata 13:
options("RStata.StataVersion" = 13)
As above, you may consider to put this statement in your .Rprofile.
See ?stata.
In some setup the package seems to freeze even with the simplest
example (eg stata('set obs 10')).
This is likely dued to Stata more option, which has to be set
to off:
set more off, permanently
See issue 6.
> stata("help regress") #<- this won't work in Windows dued to needed
# batch mode
. help regress
Title
-----
[R] regress -- Linear regression
Syntax
------
regress depvar [indepvars] [if] [in] [weight] [, options]
[...]
You can do this (eg.):
> stata_src <- "
version 10
sysuse auto
reg mpg weight
"
> stata(stata_src)
[...]
> stata("foo.do")
> x <- data.frame(a = rnorm(3), b = letters[1:3])
> stata("sum a", data.in = x)
. sum a
Variable | Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
------------+--------------------------------------------------------
a | 3 -.5603985 .3000552 -.7720861 -.2170166
Eg in order to obtain auto dataset
> auto <- stata("sysuse auto", data.out = TRUE)
. sysuse auto
(1978 Automobile Data)
> head(auto)
make price mpg rep78 headroom trunk weight length turn displacement
1 AMC Concord 4099 22 3 2.5 11 2930 186 40 121
2 AMC Pacer 4749 17 3 3.0 11 3350 173 40 258
3 AMC Spirit 3799 22 NA 3.0 12 2640 168 35 121
4 Buick Century 4816 20 3 4.5 16 3250 196 40 196
5 Buick Electra 7827 15 4 4.0 20 4080 222 43 350
6 Buick LeSabre 5788 18 3 4.0 21 3670 218 43 231
gear_ratio foreign
1 3.58 Domestic
2 2.53 Domestic
3 3.08 Domestic
4 2.93 Domestic
5 2.41 Domestic
6 2.73 Domestic
> x <- data.frame(a = rnorm(3), b = letters[1:3])
> (y <- stata("replace a = 2", data.in = x, data.out = TRUE))
. replace a = 2
(3 real changes made)
a b
1 2 a
2 2 b
3 2 c
You are welcome to:
- submit suggestions and bug-reports at: http://github.com/lbraglia/RStata/issues
- fork and send a pull request on: http://github.com/lbraglia/RStata/
- send an e-mail to: lbraglia@gmail.com