Adding a new option to a variable and then assigning observations to is

[Josie Thompson]

Hi,
I have variables finaldx and final dxgroup, and I am trying to assign values with finaldx of Cauda equine syndrome to finaldxgroup of Cauda equina syndrome. So I tried this:
replace finaldxgroup == "Cauda Equina Syndrome" if finaldx = "Cauda equina syndrome"
however, I get a r(198) error and it says "== invalid name". I think this is because of finaldxgroup doesn't have a Cauda equine syndrome option:
. tab finaldxgroup

FinalDxGroup | Freq. Percent Cum.
--------------+-----------------------------------
Complication | 1,243 2.04 2.04
Congenital | 741 1.22 3.26
DegenSpine | 10,595 17.39 20.65
Hydrocephalus | 1,812 2.97 23.62
Infection | 1,659 2.72 26.34
Misc | 1,607 2.64 28.98
None | 4,693 7.70 36.68
Oncology | 7,648 12.55 49.24
SCI | 7,262 11.92 61.15
TBI | 14,189 23.29 84.44
Vascular | 9,479 15.56 100.00
--------------+-----------------------------------
Total | 60,928 100.00

So I sort of need to add the option of "Cauda equina syndrome" to finaldxgroup, and then assign the observations that have finaldx == "Cauda equine syndrome" to this.


Can anyone help? Thank you!

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Josie:
welcome to this forum.
Perhaps the issue is simply that:

replace finaldxgroup == "Cauda Equina Syndrome" if finaldx = "Cauda equina syndrome"

is an illegal Stata code, whereas:

replace finaldxgroup = "Cauda Equina Syndrome" if finaldx == "Cauda equina syndrome"

might work as expected.

[Josie Thompson]

Ah I see, thank you Carlo!