Error when using "margins" command

[Ali Karo]

I have used the "margins" command successfully earlier, but now run into an error every time I try to employ it. I use Stata 16.

As an example, this happens when I try to reproduce the first example given in the margins help file:

. webuse margex, clear
(Artificial data for margins)

. regress y i.sex i.group

      Source |       SS           df       MS      Number of obs   =     3,000
-------------+----------------------------------   F(3, 2996)      =    152.06
       Model |  183866.077         3  61288.6923   Prob > F        =    0.0000
    Residual |  1207566.93     2,996  403.059723   R-squared       =    0.1321
-------------+----------------------------------   Adj R-squared   =    0.1313
       Total |  1391433.01     2,999  463.965657   Root MSE        =    20.076

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           y |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |
     female  |   18.32202   .8930951    20.52   0.000     16.57088    20.07316
             |
       group |
          2  |   8.037615    .913769     8.80   0.000     6.245937    9.829293
          3  |   18.63922   1.159503    16.08   0.000     16.36572    20.91272
             |
       _cons |   53.32146   .9345465    57.06   0.000     51.48904    55.15388
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.
. margins sex
invalid syntax
r(198);

Stata gives the same error every time I use the margins command.

Experience tells me that Stata is right and I did something wrong when something is not working, but I struggle to see any errors here. Any idea what is going on?

[Clyde Schechter]

. about

Stata/MP 16.0 for Windows (64-bit x86-64)
Revision 14 Nov 2019
Copyright 1985-2019 StataCorp LLC

Total physical memory:       32.00 GB
Available physical memory:   22.51 GB

Single-user 4-core Stata perpetual license:
       Serial number:  REDACTED
         Licensed to:  Clyde Schechter
                       Albert Einstein College of Medicine

.
. webuse margex, clear
(Artificial data for margins)

.
. regress y i.sex i.group

      Source |       SS           df       MS      Number of obs   =     3,000
-------------+----------------------------------   F(3, 2996)      =    152.06
       Model |  183866.077         3  61288.6923   Prob > F        =    0.0000
    Residual |  1207566.93     2,996  403.059723   R-squared       =    0.1321
-------------+----------------------------------   Adj R-squared   =    0.1313
       Total |  1391433.01     2,999  463.965657   Root MSE        =    20.076

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           y |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |
     female  |   18.32202   .8930951    20.52   0.000     16.57088    20.07316
             |
       group |
          2  |   8.037615    .913769     8.80   0.000     6.245937    9.829293
          3  |   18.63922   1.159503    16.08   0.000     16.36572    20.91272
             |
       _cons |   53.32146   .9345465    57.06   0.000     51.48904    55.15388
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.
. margins sex

Predictive margins                              Number of obs     =      3,000
Model VCE    : OLS

Expression   : Linear prediction, predict()

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             |            Delta-method
             |     Margin   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |
       male  |   60.56034   .5781782   104.74   0.000     59.42668    61.69401
     female  |   78.88236   .5772578   136.65   0.000      77.7505    80.01422
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I cannot replicate your difficulty on my setup. Here are a few suggestions to try:

1. Run -update all, force- to make sure you have a complete installation of the most recent Stata version 16.
2. If that does not help, reboot your computer and try the code again.
3. If that still does not help, I suggest contacting Stata technical support about this. When doing this, be sure to provide complete information about your setup (OS, make and model of hardware).

[Ali Karo]

Thanks for the swift reply!
Rebooting did not help. I need an admin to update Stata. I will contact support if updating does not help.