Use a for-loop to generate dummy variables

[Peter Johnson]

I'm having a hard time generating dummy variables using a for loop. I have a variable with some values, now I want to create a dummy variable for each value such that if it takes the specific value it will return 1 otherwise it will return 0. I can't make it work since I always end up creating one new variable with all values being equal to 1. I have posted two pictures, the first one is the variable and the second one is how I want it to look like.

I want it to look like this:

[Dan Palmer]

I think you will want to read up on using the levelsof command to feed a macro extension. See https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/d...-with-foreach/

[William Lisowski]

If you are creating these dummy variables to be used as independent variables in a regression model, for example, you should not do so but instead take advantage of Stata's "factor variables" described in the output of help factor variables.

[Nick Cox]

No loop is needed. If you do really need all these, then fine, and

tab X, gen(X_)

will get them in one go.

See also dummieslab (SSC).

[Dan Palmer]

Peter, I would try something like this:

levelsof x, local(xxx)
foreach lev of local xxx {
    gen x_`lev'=0
    replace x_`lev'=1 if x==real("`lev'")
    }