Log values Excel versus Stata

[sara jh]

Dear All,

I would like to ask about why is the log using excel function is not the same as the value of log using stata?

in excel, I used the following function: =log(variable)

in stata, I used the following function: =log(variable)

[Nick Cox]

Documented difference. In MS Excel log() defaults to base 10, whereas in Stata, log() means only natural logarithm to base exp(1) ~ 2.71828.

In Stata

help log()

for more. Stata also has a function log10().

[Daniel Schaefer]

Note as well that other online calculators or programing languages will use log base 2 as the convention.

[sara jh]

Thank you very much.

[Anthony Killeen]

Both Excel and Stata also recognize ln(x) as the natural log specification, which can clarify the base being used.