During the workshop, participants will learn how to efficiently handle problems of data management with Stata, and how to avoid repetition by automating (and programming) tasks. The workshop is not an introduction to Stata, but will feature “best practice” of Stata usage in order to modify existing do-files (or create new ones) to be reproducible, maintainable, and efficient. The tips and tricks will refer mainly to data preparation and management, but they can also be used for automation of data analysis. The workshop will present some ideas about these topics, but focus on the interactive work where participants shall learn producing efficient Stata syntax by themselves.

Advanced users of Stata with fluent handling who are used to work with the software and have a general interest in programming.

Participants will learn how to apply advanced programming techniques in order to create stand-alone Stata programs that can be re-used and/or distributed, making redundant steps of data management procedures throughout a project obsolete.

Participants should have at least moderate experience in using Stata; i.e. they should know about data manipulation commands like reshape and merge, and be capable to regularly use them. They are supposed to prepare a short verbal presentation featuring a typical Data Management or Data Analysis task (or a combination of both) they perform on a regular basis to the first session. During the course, this task may serve as an example case of automating procedures with Stata.