Upgrate to Stata 16 from Stata 13?

[Francois Durant]

Hi,

I have multiple datasets and code in Stata 13 that I need to continue using but my department is offering to upgrade to Stata 16. Am I going to have compatibility issues? Is that a good idea to upgrade? What are the benefits of Stata 16 relative to older versions? Thanks.

[Richard Williams]

I would almost certainly upgrade if you get the chance. Compatibility is rarely an issue, if ever. You may want/need to run some things with version control.

Here are new features just going from 15 to 16:

https://www.stata.com/new-in-stata/

Also, I just keep old versions of Stata on my computer. You can still run them.

[Maja Schmitz]

Also, I just keep old versions of Stata on my computer. You can still run them.

Hi Richard,

when you keep older versions of Stata, do you rename the Stata folders (e.g. from "Stata" to "Stata 12") prior to installing the new version or do you simply install the new version without doing anything?

Thank you very much in advance.

Maja

[Nick Cox]

#3 The installation software, at least in my experience, defaults to giving a distinctive name to each new set of folders, presumably for this reason: some people keep old versions.

You can always override the suggested installation folders by suggesting new names. Even if there is a good reason to do that, it is hard for me to imagine that the detail Stata16, Stata15, ... is not a good idea.

[Maja Schmitz]

Hi Nick,

thank you very much for replying to my question. You are right: I just installed the software the same way as I would have done without having an older version on my computer. The old Stata folder was automatically renamed from "Stata" to "Stata 12".

[Richard Williams]

Stata is one of the easiest programs I have ever seen for keeping old versions around. It seems to do minimal writing to the registry. Even if I switch to a new machine, I can just copy the folder where old Stata was installed. I don't use old versions often, but they come in handy sometimes.

Not all of what works in Stata is actually documented in Stata. In particular, with version control, you can run, say, a command with the Stata 10 syntax. But that syntax may have changed over time, and current Stata won't tell you what the old syntax was. If you still have Stata 10 around, you can fire it up and see what the help file for the command says.

Old versions are also handy for your own publicly available programs. If you update a command that was written for Stata 12, and you update it using Stata 16, it is possible that you'll do something that keeps it from running in Stata 12. If you have Stata 12 you can test your new version out. I usually find that if I have inadvertently zapped my program, I can come up with alternate code that will still work in V 12.

[Maja Schmitz]

Thank you very much Richard for these additional information. That helps a lot to better understand Stata.