This is a list of the changes made to existing instruction in Version 5 of RATS (released in 2000). See RATS: Latest Release for details on the current release, RATS Updates for information about updating your RATS software or RATS Information and Features for general information on RATS.
| ALLOCATE | The little-used parameters equations and maxvar have been replaced with options of the same names. |
| AR1 | Hildreth-Lu (HILU) is now the default method, changed from Cochrane-Orcutt (CORC). In addition, you now have the option of inputting a value for rho, rather than having it estimated. |
| BOOT | Added [REPLACE]/NOREPLACE option to allow drawing without replacement. |
| CALENDAR | The new RECALL option and the %CALENDAR() function allow you to temporarily change and then restore your CALENDAR settings. There are new date and time functions as well. |
| COPY | New formats: HTML, CDF (comma-delimited format), plus the new PICTURE option for controlling format of output. We now use the COLUMNS/ROWS terminology for the ORG option, although the older ORG=VAR/OBS terminology is still supported. |
| CORRELATE | New METHOD option selects between the new Burg algorithm (the default) or the Yule-Walker algorithm used in earlier versions. |
| DATA | Excel format has been updated to allow reading files created by more recent versions. CDF (comma-delimited) is now accepted. ORG=COLUMNS/ROWS has superseded ORG=VAR/OBS, though the latter are still supported. |
| DISPLAY | Many new capabilities for formatting output, including new picture and position code options, and the ability to display entire arrays (previously you had to use WRITE for displaying entire arrays). The new %BESTREP and %MINIMALREP functions are also useful with DISPLAY. |
| ENVIRONMENT | The new GSAVE and GFORMAT parameters allow you to automate the process of saving a series of graphs into separate files in any of the file formats supported by RATS. |
| EQUATION | New COEFFS option allows you to assign coefficients for identities as you define the equation (rather than using ASSOCIATE later). The ARlags and MAlags parameters now accept lists of lags. |
| ESTIMATE | New options COEFFS and RESIDUALS provide an easier way to save estimated coefficients and residuals. COHISTORY option allows you to save the coefficient history when doing Kalman filtering. VAR coefficient sums are now stored in the array %VARLAGSUMS and %SIGMA is defined as the covariance matrix of residuals. |
| EWISE | The new %DO function is sometimes a better alternative to EWISE-see example under EWISE. |
| FIND | Now offers GENETIC and BFGS optimization methods in addition to SIMPLEX. New ROOT setting for finding a root, plus new options for controlling output (TRACE, NOPRINT, etc.). Slight syntax change, with the use of END FIND to end the controlled instructions. FIND can now control other non-linear estimation instructions. |
| FORECAST | New RESULTS option simplifies saving forecasts for multi-equation systems. Models can now contain EQUATIONS as well as FRMLs, including combinations of both in a single MODEL. WINDOW option allows you to direct output to a spreadsheet-style window. |
| FRML | New PARMSET option for creating or modifying a parameter set when using the EQUATION or LASTREG options to construct the FRML. The VECTOR option allows parameters pulled from the model to form a vector. You can now declare FRMLs of types other than REAL: a FRML of VECTORS for example. |
| HISTORY | New RESULTS options simplifies saving results into series. New LABELS option allows user-defined labels for the decomposition results. Now supports MODEL option (can only be used with MODEL's of equations--FRMLs not allowed). |
| IMPULSE | New RESULTS and LABELS options (see HISTORY above). |
| INQUIRE | New functions augment/supersede some capabilities of INQUIRE (see description of INQUIRE for a list). |
| KALMAN | Now includes RESIDUALS, COEFFS, and COHISTORY options to make it easier to save residuals and coefficients from multiple equation models, and the "history" of coefficients over time for single-equation models. Note: The RESIDS option used previously to select the method of computing residuals has been renamed as RTYPE. |
| MAXIMIZE | New GENETIC method supported, and the new PARMSET operation allows use of parameter sets. |
| NLLS | New PARMSET and STARTUP options for selecting parameter sets and providing a separate formula to be evaluated for the first entry in the estimation range. SIMPLEX and GENETIC algorithms now offered in addition to the default Gauss-Newton method. |
| NLPAR | New EXACTLINESEARCH option, plus options for controlling the new genetic algorithm. |
| NNLEARN | New ITERATIONS option provides additional control over the model fitting process. |
| NNTEST | New VALIDATE option for computing a mean squared error from comparison with target output set. |
| NONLIN | Now allows arrays as well as scalar reals as parameters and allows for "substitution" constraints and equality and inequality constraints for doing constrained optimization. Also, now supports multiple parameter sets via the PARMSET option. |
| OPEN | New WINDOW option. |
| ORDER | New %SORT and %RANK functions provide alternatives to ORDER. |
| OVERLAY | New matrix extraction functions %XSUBMAT and %XSUBVEC (plus %XDIAG, %XROW, %XCOL that were added with 4.2) provide a useful alternative to OVERLAY in certain circumstances. |
| PANEL | ENTRY, INDIV, and TIME settings are now handled as options rather than parameters (although the parameter method is still supported). The new PREGRESS instruction provides an alternative method of doing panel data regressions. |
| New PICTURE and WIDTH options for controlling output formatting, and a WINDOW option for directing output to a spreadsheet window. | |
| PRTDATA | New formats, including HTML and CDF are now available. |
| PSTATS | Can now handle unbalanced panel data sets. |
| SCATTER | Features many new options, including the ability to do overlay (two-scale) graphs, log-scale graphs, shading, and more. |
| SIMULATE | New RESULTS option for conveniently saving simulation results, and a new DECOMP option for supplying your own decompositions. |
| STATISTICS | The MOMENTS option now computes the Jarque-Bera normality test. |
| STEPS | Same changes as FORECAST (see above). |
| SYSTEM | The new MODEL option allows you to define the system as a MODEL, rather than a list of equations, which simplifies the use of instructions like FORECAST, IMPULSE, HISTORY. |
| TABLE | New WINDOW option directs output to a spreadsheet-style window. |
| WRITE | The DISPLAY instruction has been upgraded to handle most tasks which used to required WRITE. |