Hierarchical anycount

[Felix Stips]

Dear all,

I have 2 sets of 8 variables and want to do

egen x = anycount(varlist) values(1 3 6 7)

for all of them.

The complication is that the variable are hierarchical, e.g. if there was a match in the 2nd variable of the 1st set, then a potential match in the 2nd variable of the 2nd set should not be counted again. In this case, the command should only count 1 and not 2.

Does anybody have an idea how to implement this?

Thank you very much!

[William Lisowski]

My suggestion would be that you loop through your 8 pairs of variables. Here's sample code assuming your two sets of variables are a1-a8 and b1-b8.

generate x = 0
forvalues i=1/8 {
    egen c = anycount(a`i' b`i'), values(1 3 6 7)
    replace x = x + max(c,1)
    drop c
}

or alternatively

generate x = 0
forvalues i=1/8 {
    replace x = x + max(inlist(a`i',1,2,6,7), inlist(b`i',1,2,6,7))
}