Using large language model with Stata to help in coding

[Mikko Rönkkö]

I just spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to get a large language model (Claude 3.5 Sonnet, in my case) to do Stata. I did not find any useful tutorials, so I just tried to figure it out myself using Visual Studio Code as an editor. This is mind-blowingly good, so I thought it was worth sharing.

Here is a screencast that first shows how the system works and then how it is set up. The first 2-3 minutes is just a demo and a small complaint how Stata is not doing this. The Stata demo starts at around 3 minutes.

https://youtu.be/cOwmYXYkxWA

Claude can also competently convert Stata code to R and to some extent also other way, but it is a bit less capable with Stata than with R .


(My YouTube challenge does not run ads and I hold no commercial interest in this content.)

[George Ford]

Thanks Mikko. I've been using Claude.ai (at the suggestion of Scott Cunningham) and find it to be helpful, unlike ChatGPT (at least, the earlier versions). I have also used it for R (and ChatGPT) with some success, and I don't know much about R.

[Mark Davis]

I may be coming to this conversation late. I agree with Mikko Rönkkö that Claude is very good. I would say better than GPT. That said I have a private GPT that I have trained on the stata manuals and that does stata well. I am experimenting with running local LLMs on my machine to use with code that cannot be shared to the cloud. I think some day more research institutions will host private local LLMs for use with secure research servers to help with coding. For the most part most everyone would be happy with claude, I just like experimenting with new tech.