repkit: Tools for reproducible coding

Abstract

Writing Stata code that produces the same results on another user’s machine is an essential component of modern reproducible data analysis workflows. However, a number of reasons may make it difficult to do so without detailed knowledge of the recipient’s environment. For example, differences between installation of (third-party) community-contributed files may cause failures. Furthermore, even when the environment is not an issue, users may make errors regarding random-number generation in the Stata code. These issues can be very challenging to detect from the code output alone. The repkit package provides new tools to automate: the location of root file paths; the configuration of community-contributed command installations; “linting” of the Stata code for readability; and the precise detection of code issues affecting reproducibility.

Keywords

st0788 repkit reproot repado reprun lint linter ado-files root paths directory paths reproducibility

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