ABSTRACT
Stata is a general-purpose statistical program that has some unique features not found in other such general packages. Two other popular general-purpose statistical packages are SAS (Statistical Analysis System) and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Each of these has its strengths and weaknesses. SAS probably has the greatest user base among agricultural researchers. It is a command-line program that has a GUI (graphical user interface), but it is only available as an add-on. SAS does not maintain the same level of versions across operating systems. So, for example, the latest version available for Windows® is 9.3, while for the Macintosh® it is 6.12, which is not supported in the current Macintosh operating system, and, since I use a Macintosh, well, you get the picture.
