Final answer:
The error is due to the haven package not being loaded in R, which contains the 'read_dta' function. To resolve this, you must first install and then load the haven package using the 'library(haven)' command before you can use 'read_dta' to import your dataset.
Step-by-step explanation:
The error "could not find function 'read_dta'" typically indicates that the function being called does not exist in the current R environment. This usually happens because the package that contains the function has not been loaded. In your case, read_dta is a function from the haven package, which is used to read and write different data formats, including Stata, SPSS, and SAS. To resolve the issue, you should first install the haven package if you haven't already, and then load it into your R session using the library function.
The correct steps to load your 'stata_data.dta' file into R using the haven package are:
Install the haven package if it's not installed:
install.packages("haven")
Load the haven package into your R session:
library(haven)
Read your dataset with read_dta:
df <- read_dta("stata_data.dta")
Clearing the global environment, putting datasets in quotation marks, or changing the working directory are not related to the issue you have encountered.