Creating indicator variables from multiple categorical variable

[Melat Kassa]

Hello,

I wanted to create an indicator variable combining two or more categorical variable. So for one of my variables i want to combine the variable gender (female=1 and male=0) and race (white=1, black=2, Hispanic=3 and other=4) to create 12 variables. Generally, when i create indicator variables using one categorical variable, i usually do one of the three options: manually generate variable or tabulate with generate ( ) or make a loop with the generate command. I tried to do this using 2 variables using the second or third method, but i kept getting an error from STATA. Is there an easy way to generate indicator variables using 2 or more categorical variables?

[Rich Goldstein]

I don't see how you expect to get 12 variables out of 2*4=8; at any rate, the easiest way is probably to use -egen- with the "group" function to get one variable with all existing combinations; if you want to use this in an analysis, you should probably stop there and use factor variable notation; see

help egen
help fvvarlist

added in edit: if you then really want the set of indicator variables, you can use -tab-, with the generate option;
note also for the above that, with -egen- you may well want the "label" option

help tab

[Melat Kassa]

Sorry, i meant to say 8! But yes i used -egen- with group and that seemed to work. Thank you so much, Rich!