a better method of generating a variable?

[Yao Zhao]

I have a education variable, q15_educ, in my data set and I need to create a new education variable, educ, based on that. I have a method, but do you have easier method?

gen educ = 1 if (q15_educ == "High school graduate, diploma or equivalent") | (q15_educ == "Some high school") | (q15_educ == "Trade/Technical/vocational training")
replace educ = 2 if (q15_educ == "Associate degree") | (q15_educ == "Bachelor's degree") | (q15_educ == "Some college credit, no degree") 
replace educ = 3 if (q15_educ == "Doctorate degree") | (q15_educ == "Master's degree")

[Antoine Dedewanou]

Hi Yao,

Here is what you should try:

tab q15_educ, nolab
gen educ =1 if q15_educ==4 | q15_educ==8 | q15_educ==9
replace educ=2 if educ==. & (q15_educ==1 | q15_educ==2 | q15_educ==6)
replace educ=3 if educ==. & (q15_educ==3 | q15_educ==5)

[Yao Zhao]

Hi Antoine,

Your method doesn't work. Stata prompts "type mismatch", because q15_educ is a string variable.

[Antoine Dedewanou]

Hi Yao,

Obviously, my method works if q15_educ is a discrete variable with the values ranging from 1 to 9. Regarding the code that you wrote initially, can you try this?

gen educ = 1 if (q15_educ == "High school graduate, diploma or equivalent") | (q15_educ == "Some high school") | (q15_educ == "Trade/Technical/vocational training")
replace educ = 2 if educ==. & ((q15_educ == "Associate degree") | (q15_educ == "Bachelor's degree") | (q15_educ == "Some college credit, no degree"))
replace educ = 3 if educ==. & ((q15_educ == "Doctorate degree") | (q15_educ == "Master's degree"))

[Yao Zhao]

Well, you just repeat my codes...

[Nick Cox]

help inlist()

to learn why (e.g.) this is simpler

 
 replace educ = 3 if educ==. & inlist(q15_educ, "Doctorate degree", "Master's degree")