Contents

Setup Python in Stata

Stata16 has been updated for use on Apple Silicon based Macs but older versions will run through translation instead of native support.

Assumptions

This session presumes you have already installed Stata16 on your computer and you are already proficient with using stata

Warning

Some Universities install stata over the network as university provided software. This can cause issues relating to permissions so please speak up if you run into these problems and we can look at trying to find a solution.

Integration between computer software is always a tricky problem to solve and typically requires some investment in setting up the integrations properly.

In this session we will focus on setting up python in stata and getting access to your configuration.

Having good knowledge of how your system is configured can great assist in reducing bugs and issues related to software problems and environments.

This workflow has been put together on macOS. The stata application is pretty consistent across platforms such as Windows but please let me know if we need windows tabs for clarity

Open up the Stata application on your computer

../../_images/stata-open.png

Checking your Configuration

To check your configuration you can type

python query

in the command window which will provide the following details:

../../_images/stata-python-query.png

the output provides useful information about how stata and python are linked together.

Field

Description

python_exec

the location on your computer for the python interpreter you are using in stata

python_userpath

the location for any custom python code that you would like added to the python sys.path

python system information

this provides additional information about the python version and software used.

You can also see that python hasn’t been initialised as we haven’t used it in this session.

Searching for Python on your System

Stata can search your system for any python installations and list them by typing

python search

in the command window.

../../_images/stata-python-search.png

Note

If python is not yet configured you will see:

. python search

no Python installation found; minimum version required is 2.7.
r(111)

this will require you to install a python environment such as anaconda

Setting the python distribution

Linking stata to a specific python installation (such as anaconda) can be done using the set python_exec command such as:

set python_exec /Users/<user>/anaconda3/bin/python

set python_exec C:\Users\<users>\anaconda3\python.exe

Warning

If you have already started a python session in stata you will need to quit stata and reopen it before using set python_exec

This can be used together with python search to know which path to provide.

You can then check the setting has taken effect using python query.

Updating your sys.path in python

python uses sys.path to specify the search path for looking up python packages and other utilities and programs.

You can add a custom path for the python stata environment using set python_userpath

set python_userpath /Users/<user>/mypythoncode

set python_userpath C:\Users\<users>\mypythoncode

Then check the setting has taken effect using python query.

Testing Python

macOS + Anaconda Issue

I ran into this issue on my macOS installation of Stata and found the suggestion solution was required to prevent this behavior

To check that everything is setup and ready to go you can run the first python example and verify everything is working.

Stata and Python Integrated Workflows