Generate unique ID of 4 digits

[Tania Hernan]

Hello,

My data doesn't have a unique identifier and I want to generate a unique id of each row of 4 digits (0001, 0002, 0003..... 1114, etc), so I can later merge the ID with other elements such as State Name, (NY0001, NY0002, ... NY1114 etc). I am using _n but only generates a number of length 1.

Thanks,

Tania

[Leonardo Guizzetti]

Using something like

gen int id = _n

Is a sensible way to assign a unique and incremental I'd number to your observations. The numeric id can also be useful for later subsetting without worrying about string operations.

If you want to make text-based id with the padded zeroes, this link will give you a start in the right direction.

It will look something like this (note: code is untested and may come with typos).

gen int id = _n
Gen str10 sid = "ABC" + string(id, "%04.0f")

[Tania Hernan]

Thanks Lenardo!

Following your advice. This was my final code:

gen STATE3 = substr(STATE, 1, 3)

gen str3 id3 = string(_n,"%04.0f")

gen unique_id = STATE3 + id3