How to compare the mean of a dataset with a reference mean (i.e. fixed mean) from the literature?

[Agnes Danton]

Dear Stata experts,

I want to compare the mean of my dataset with the mean of a reference population from the literature. I do not have access to the raw data of this reference population so I was wondering how I can perform a t-test comparing the mean of my dataset with a fixed mean/the mean of my reference population.

I hope you can help me.

Thank you in advance,
Agnes

[Andrew Musau]

You can be that direct.

sysuse auto, clear
ttest weight=3000

Res.

. ttest weight=3000

One-sample t test
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variable |     Obs        Mean    Std. Err.   Std. Dev.   [95% Conf. Interval]
---------+--------------------------------------------------------------------
  weight |      74    3019.459    90.34692    777.1936    2839.398    3199.521
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    mean = mean(weight)                                           t =   0.2154
Ho: mean = 3000                                  degrees of freedom =       73

   Ha: mean < 3000             Ha: mean != 3000               Ha: mean > 3000
 Pr(T < t) = 0.5850         Pr(|T| > |t|) = 0.8301          Pr(T > t) = 0.4150

Here, we fail to reject the hypothesis that the mean weight for cars in the auto dataset is 3000 lbs.