Displaying all the unique categories of a variable

[Titir Bhattacharya]

HI all,

Please consider the following data set on ocuupation

clear

. input str4 occu

          occu
  1. homemaker
  2. retired
  3. student
  4. businessman
  5. daily labourer
  6. student
  7. daily labourer
  8. end

. list

     +------+
     | occu |
     |------|
  1. | home |
  2. | reti |
  3. | stud |
  4. | busi |
  5. | dail |
     |------|
  6. | stud |
  7. | dail |
     +------+

Is there any code that would display these occupational categories uniquely?

I used the following:

codebook occupation

and got the output:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
occupation                                                                                                                                                 (unlabeled)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                  type:  string (strL)

         unique values:  23                       missing "":  0/544,533

              examples:  "Home Maker"
                         "Home-based Worker"
                         "Self employed professional"
                         "Student"

               warning:  variable has embedded blanks

This does not let me see what these 23 unique values can be.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[Nick Cox]

Contrary to codebook -- and much else -- I suggest that distinct is a much better word here, as argued within Section 2 of https://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf....iclenum=dm0042

Here are some possibilities. Unlike codebook, all these commands will show all distinct categories.

. sysuse auto, clear
(1978 Automobile Data)

. tab foreign

   Car type |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
   Domestic |         52       70.27       70.27
    Foreign |         22       29.73      100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
      Total |         74      100.00

. table foreign

----------------------
 Car type |      Freq.
----------+-----------
 Domestic |         52
  Foreign |         22
----------------------

* groups is from the Stata Journal 
. groups foreign, show(none)

  +----------+
  |  foreign |
  |----------|
  | Domestic |
  |  Foreign |
  +----------+

[Titir Bhattacharya]

Contrary to codebook -- and much else -- I suggest that distinct is a much better word here, as argued within Section 2 of https://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf....iclenum=dm0042

Here are some possibilities. Unlike codebook, all these commands will show all distinct categories.

. sysuse auto, clear
(1978 Automobile Data)

. tab foreign

Car type | Freq. Percent Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
Domestic | 52 70.27 70.27
Foreign | 22 29.73 100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
Total | 74 100.00

. table foreign

----------------------
Car type | Freq.
----------+-----------
Domestic | 52
Foreign | 22
----------------------

* groups is from the Stata Journal
. groups foreign, show(none)

+----------+
| foreign |
|----------|
| Domestic |
| Foreign |
+----------+

thanks a lot. this really helped