How to generate variables from the information within a multiple choice question variable

[andrew roder]

Dear All,
I have a dataset where one of the variables represents a multiple-choice question, but all responses are recorded within a single variable. What I need to do is create several dummy variables corresponding to each option in the multiple-choice question. Each dummy variable should be assigned a value of 1 if the response includes the respective option, and 0 if it does not.



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* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str270 N
"lack of education qualification"                                                                             
"lack of education qualification"                                                                             
"lack of personal confidence, i have a good job/ business at hand, cannot spare time from my household chores"
"lack of education qualification"                                                                             
"lack of personal confidence, lack of education qualification"                                                
"lack of education qualification"                                                                             
"lack of personal confidence"                                                                                 
"never got opportunities from any party"                                                                      
"lack of personal confidence"                                                                                 
"never got opportunities from any party"                                                                      
"lack of personal confidence"                                                                                 
"never got opportunities from any party"                                                                      
"never got opportunities from any party"                                                                      
"i have a good job/ business at hand"                                                                         
"i have a good job/ business at hand"                                                                         
"i have a good job/ business at hand"                                                                         
"discouraging socio-cultural environment for women to participate, i have a good job/ business at hand"       
"never got opportunities from any party, gender biases society"                                               
"never got opportunities from any party, i have a good job/ business at hand"                                 
"lack of personal confidence"                                                                                 
"i have a good job/ business at hand"                                                                         
"i have a good job/ business at hand"                                                                         
""                                                                                                            
""                                                                                                            
end

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Could copy only few data since there is a limit. For example : lack of personal confidence, i have a good job/ business at hand, cannot spare time from my household chores" : convert it into thre

These are the options in my multiple choice question:
lack of personal confidence
Discouraging socio-cultural environment for women to participate
Never got opportunities from any party
I have a good job/ business at hand
Cannot spare time from my household chores
Gender biases society
Lack of education qualification

So I want in total 7 dummy variables to be created
For Example: lack of personal confidence, i have a good job/ business at hand, cannot spare time from my household chores" : this particular data point will have "1" in all three of these options and 0 in the other.

Thank you in advance.

[Clyde Schechter]

local response1    lack of personal confidence
local response2    discouraging socio-cultural environment for women to participate
local response3    never got opportunities from any party
local response4    i have a good job/ business at hand
local response5    cannot spare time from my household chores
local response6    gender biases society
local response7    lack of education qualification

forvalues i = 1/7 {
    gen byte response`i' = strpos(N, `"`response`i''"') > 0
}

Note: This code relies on exact string matching. That means that the text contained in variable N must match the response exactly in terms of spelling, capitalization, internal spacing, and internal punctuation. So your data set must be thoroughly cleaned before you use this.