A set of Stata 9 Manuals is available in EDS and a partial set in Lehman Reserves. A set of Stata 8 Manuals is in Lehman's circulating collection; check CLIO for the call numbers.

Stata doesn't have a built-in tutorial but some written by others are available on the web. See StataCorp's Resources for learning Stata web page.

Stata has lots of built in help:

• The "help" command. Use help when you know the Stata word or phrase you need help on .
• The "Help" pulldown menu on the upper right.
• The "search" command. Use search when you are not sure of the name of the command or are looking for information on a topic. It searches a keyword database and the Internet.
• The "findit" command. This is like "search" but searches for information on a topic across all sources including the online help, the FAQs at the Stata web site, the Stata Journal, and all Stata-related internet sources including user-written additions. From findit, you can click to go to a source or to install additions.
• The "describe" command. This tells you about your active dataset and its variables. Use "describe, short" if you down't want to see the list of variables. If you want to find a certain variable but are unsure of its name, use the wild card "*" symbol, e.g., "describe in*" will list all the variables starting with in and "describe *9" will list all the variables ending in 9.

• The "lookfor" command. Use this to search through variable names and variable lables for a string, e.g., "lookfor in" will find the variable, "income", and a variable whose variable label is "writing".

Other Online Resources:

UCLA has pulled together a good bit of introductory material on learning Stata, including a movie of an introductory class. Click here for their "Starter Kit" page.