Generating Percentage Variables

[Arif Mujaddedi]

Hi,
I’m new to stata and am having trouble creating percentage variable (out of 100) for the percentage of population (in a particular context) eligible for Medicare . I have a variable (A)for the number of eligible people and another variable for sum of race and ethnicity. Which of the following two syntax should be used to create the new percentage variable (C) out of 100:
1. generate variable (C)== variable A/ variable B *100
2. generate variable (C)==100 variable A/((variable B)*100)
3. generate variable (C)==100 (variable A/variable B) *100

Or if I should use a totally different variable ? I’m not good in math as well:-)

Best,

Arif

[Attaullah Shah]

Welcome to Statalist. It is a recommended practice here to post your data using the dataex (from SSC). See the following example dataset and the code to generate percentages

clear
input float(A B)
348 398
266 316
136 186
 28  78
868 918
350 400
 71 121
323 373
555 605
875 925
end

* Find percentage
gen C = 100 * A / B


. list

     +----------------------+
     |   A     B          C |
     |----------------------|
  1. | 348   398   87.43719 |
  2. | 266   316   84.17722 |
  3. | 136   186   73.11828 |
  4. |  28    78   35.89743 |
  5. | 868   918   94.55338 |
     |----------------------|
  6. | 350   400       87.5 |
  7. |  71   121   58.67768 |
  8. | 323   373   86.59518 |
  9. | 555   605   91.73553 |
 10. | 875   925    94.5946 |
     +----------------------+