How to create dummy variables

[Ana Vasconcelos]

Hello,

I have a dataset with a variable i_sex. This variable takes the value of 1 for men and 2 for women. Oi want to create another variable i_sex2 where the value for male is zero and the value for female is one.
can you help me with this?
thank you I’m advance.
nest regards

[Joseph Coveney]

You could try something like the following.

generate byte i_sex2 = i_sex - 1

[Ken Chui]

Don't call the new variable i_sex2 unless you keep a spectacular job with variable and value labels. Since it is 1 = F and 0 = M, might as well call the new variable sex_f or female.

[Nick Cox]

Naming an indicator (some people say "dummy") for the category coded 1 is really good advice. Indeed, Stata's auto dataset has been doing that with foreign long since.

Being clear about the direction of coding always beats the opposite. I have heard too horror stories of speakers who can't remember which way gender is coded.