COVID-19 visualizations with Stata Part 2: Customizing colors schemes

This guide will cover an important, yet, under-explored part of Stata: the use of custom color schemes. In summary, we will learn how to go from this graph:

to this graph which implements a matplotlib color scheme, typically used in R and Python graphs, in Stata:

This guide also touches upon advanced use of locals and loops which are essential for automation of tasks in Stata. Therefore, the guide assumes a basic knowledge of Stata commands. Understanding the underlying underlying logic here can also be applied to various Stata routines beyond generating graphs.

This guide build on the first article where data management, folder structures, and an introduction to automation of tasks are discussed in detail. While it is highly recommended to follow the first guide to set up the data and the folders, for the sake of completeness, some basic information is repeated here.

The guide follows a specific folder structure, in order to track changes in files. This folder structure and code used in the first guide can be downloaded from Github.