Creating graphs from two distinct categorical variables

[Alvin Ghimire]

Dear All,

I tried several time using different options, over(), by() but couldn't create a bar graph that I wanted. I have 2 categorical variables, occupation_before and occupation_after; both of them have same categories as shown in the sample dataset below. I wanted to create a bar where I can easily see the frequency of occupation before and after (in one chart). I tried using catplot, but I didn't find a way for two categorical variables with same categories.

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input double(occubefore occuafter)
2 6
2 2
6 2
2 1
1 1
2 2
1 2
2 2
3 3
1 1
1 1
1 2
3 3
1 1
6 6
2 2
1 2
6 4
1 1
2 2
4 4
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 4
2 2
1 1
2 2
2 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
5 6
1 1
1 1
1 6
1 1
4 6
3 2
1 1
5 6
1 6
1 1
3 3
1 1
4 1
2 1
3 3
2 2
2 2
1 1
2 2
2 6
2 2
1 1
2 2
4 4
1 1
1 1
6 6
1 1
1 2
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
2 6
2 2
2 5
1 4
1 1
2 2
2 6
1 1
1 1
1 1
6 6
1 1
3 3
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 6
3 3
1 1
1 1
1 1
end
label values occubefore occubefore
label def occubefore 1 "Agriculture", modify
label def occubefore 2 "Business", modify
label def occubefore 3 "Government service", modify
label def occubefore 4 "Private employee", modify
label def occubefore 5 "Daily wage labourer", modify
label def occubefore 6 "Others", modify
label values occuafter occuafter
label def occuafter 1 "Agriculture", modify
label def occuafter 2 "Business", modify
label def occuafter 3 "Government service", modify
label def occuafter 4 "Private employee", modify
label def occuafter 5 "Daily wage labourer", modify
label def occuafter 6 "Others", modify

I would appreciate your help in this. Also I wanted to perform similar with pie charts as well. Let me know if there is a way to do it. Thank you in advance.

[Nick Cox]

Pie charts? Just say no. You don't show what you tried with catplot (SSC, as you are asked to explain), but that won't be very successful for this kind of dataset.

I'd recommend rather tabplot (Stata Journal). See e.g. https://www.statalist.org/forums/for...updated-on-ssc

tabplot occuafter occubefore, showval ytitle("") xtitle("") xsc(alt) bfcolor(green*0.3)

Clearly the x axis labels need some work. Edit them to go on two or three lines, not one.

You can get probabilities or percents if you want.

An advantage of this plot is that you can talk about the principal diagonal (showing instances of no change).

[Nick Cox]

Here's a second take. I fixed the value labels in advance. I just had to make one change in the Editor, to move the vertical axis title. Whenever a graph has some table flavour, it can seem natural, or at least conventional, to move the horizontal axis stuff to the top. More on that within https://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf....iclenum=gr0053

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input double(occubefore occuafter)
2 6
2 2
6 2
2 1
1 1
2 2
1 2
2 2
3 3
1 1
1 1
1 2
3 3
1 1
6 6
2 2
1 2
6 4
1 1
2 2
4 4
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 4
2 2
1 1
2 2
2 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
5 6
1 1
1 1
1 6
1 1
4 6
3 2
1 1
5 6
1 6
1 1
3 3
1 1
4 1
2 1
3 3
2 2
2 2
1 1
2 2
2 6
2 2
1 1
2 2
4 4
1 1
1 1
6 6
1 1
1 2
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
2 6
2 2
2 5
1 4
1 1
2 2
2 6
1 1
1 1
1 1
6 6
1 1
3 3
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 6
3 3
1 1
1 1
1 1
end

label values occubefore occubefore
label def occubefore 1 "Agriculture", modify
label def occubefore 2 "Business", modify
label def occubefore 3 `" "Government" "service" "', modify
label def occubefore 4 `" "Private" "employee" "', modify
label def occubefore 5 `" "Daily wage" "labourer" "', modify
label def occubefore 6 "Others", modify
label values occuafter occubefore

set scheme s1color 
tabplot occuafter occubefore, showval ytitle("After") ysc(titlegap(0)) yla(, labsize(small)) ///
xtitle("Before") xsc(alt) xla(, labsize(small)) bfcolor(green*0.3)