Change of variable in one column

[Katrina Anderson]

Hi Stata users,

I am trying to generate a variable to tell me when a change in values has occurred down one column.

Example of data

Column	generated variable
1	1
1	0
1	0
2	1
4	1
4	0
4	0
4	0
5	1
5	0
2	1
4	1
4	0
4	0
6	1
6	0
6	0
6	0
6	0

gen generated variable = Column == value1 & (Column [_n-1] ~=  value1 )

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thankyou

[Katrina Anderson]

bysort (timeorder) : gen generated variable = (Column-Column[_n-1] !=0) if _n!=1

[Joseph Coveney]

Maybe something like the following

generate byte change = Column != Column[_n-1]
assert change == generated_variable

[Katrina Anderson]

Thankyou Joseph Coveney - works perfectly!