Needing a different space? Transformed scales in Stata

Many procedures in statistical science benefit from working on a transformed scale, either with or without a later return to the original scale. Using a logarithmic axis scale for a graph and taking logarithms of a response or predictor are common if not elementary examples. Transformations provide a theme for reviewing small Stata tips and tricks and larger Stata commands for using a transformation known to be a good idea or choosing a transformation that might be a good idea. Terrain covered includes (1) using and labeling standard and not-so-standard graph scales&emdash;not just logarithm, but also root, cube root, reciprocal, neglog, asinh, logit, and other folded transformations; (2) log-ratio transformations for compositional data; (3) density estimation on transformed scales; (4) user-chosen link functions for generalized linear models; (5) choice of transformations given distributions and relationships. Some recent and new Stata commands will be among the illustrations.