1, Click the "Rats32s" icon.	2, WinRATS opened!! Click the "R/L" and switch to "L/R" edit mode!

Begining a new RATS program:
Step 1: Specificing Sample Range

"Calender" should be the first instruction in any RATS program. You should specify a date using either year:period for annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly or daily data. For instance, "calendar 1947 1 4" means the sample data is quarterly beginning with the 1st quarter of 1947) or "calendar 1947 1 12" means the sample data is monthly beginning with January of 1947)

"Allocate" is also required before you can run anything. The command is "Allocate 0 length" where length is the ending period or maximum length of a sample data series. For instance, "allocate 0 1985:3" means data sample is ending with the 3rd quarter of 1985, or "allocate 0 1985:12" means the sample data is ended with the month December of 1985. Note: If the data series are undated, then you can skip the "calendar" and only need to instruct "allocate 0 length". For example, "allocate 0 148" means the undated sample data series with maximum 148 observations.

Step 2: Importing data

The "open data" can be either done by using the pull-down menus, or by specifying a data source directory, i.e.,"open data c:\data\filename". The supplement command line is "data(org=obs) / foodcons foodprod disping prretail prfarm" The "/" tells RATS to read the whole specified sample range from 1922:1 to 1941:1, that is, from the starting point to the ending point of the range which is specified by "ALLOCATE". The "$" is used when there is insufficient space for entering all variable names in one line. You can also indicate the range explicitly: "data(org=obs, format=free) 1922:1 1941:1 foodcons foodprod disping prretail prfarm.

Step 3: Creating and Transforming Data:

SET is the general instruction of data transformation. The general form of "SET" is "set series / = function" and two examples are shown in the picture. RATS also has a number of special purpose instructions such as SEASONAL, DUMMY, DIFFERENCE, and FILTER for difference and quasi-difference transformations. Click the HELP in WinRATS to see the details.

Step 4: Checking the Basic Statistics on series

"STATISTICS" gives the basic statistical information about one particular set of series shown as the instruction in the picture. If you want to get the basic statistical for more than one series, you can use "Table / list of series". Click here to see the statistical result.

Step 5: Graphing

GRAPH is a flexible instruction with a wide vatiety of options for fine-tuning the appearance of a graph. You can do simple graph as "graph 2" in the picture. The "2" indicates 2 series will be plotted in one graph (same scale). There is one supplement card for each series, which gives either its name, or its name and the deisred plot range. If you want to get a bit fancier, add in a HEADER option: Graph(header='Farm vs Retail Prices') 2 # prfram # ppretail Click here to see the graph. Click here to see the graph with header.

Step 6: Running Regression

"LINREG" is a general instruction for linear regressions. The regression shown in the picture is "foodprod" regresses on "prretail". Click here to see the regression result.

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