Combining categories of a categorical variable

[Gabriel Cepaluni]

Hi all,

I would like to combine some Brazilian political party names from a categorical variable (partido_pref) that was wrongly coded. (I'm using Stata 14.2.)

The categories that I would like to combine are "PC do B" and "PCdoB", and "PT do B" and "PTdoB". The parties with and without space are the same parties.

Below you will find the list of political parties.

. tab partido_pref

partido_pref | Freq. Percent Cum.
---------------+-----------------------------------
DEM | 2,267 2.14 2.14
NA | 34,848 32.84 34.98
Não disponível | 2 0.00 34.98
Outra situação | 19 0.02 35.00
PAN | 6 0.01 35.00
PC do B | 260 0.25 35.25
PCB | 2 0.00 35.25
PCdoB | 7 0.01 35.26
PCO | 1 0.00 35.26
PDT | 3,933 3.71 38.97
PFL | 6,811 6.42 45.39
PHS | 194 0.18 45.57
PL | 2,525 2.38 47.95
PMDB | 14,833 13.98 61.93
PMN | 410 0.39 62.31
PP | 5,467 5.15 67.47
PPB | 1,661 1.57 69.03
PPL | 10 0.01 69.04
PPS | 2,493 2.35 71.39
PR | 1,861 1.75 73.14
PRB | 298 0.28 73.43
PRN | 9 0.01 73.43
PRONA | 26 0.02 73.46
PRP | 273 0.26 73.72
PRTB | 121 0.11 73.83
PSB | 2,905 2.74 76.57
PSC | 480 0.45 77.02
PSD | 816 0.77 77.79
PSDB | 11,316 10.66 88.45
PSDC | 121 0.11 88.57
PSL | 273 0.26 88.83
PSOL | 4 0.00 88.83
PST | 48 0.05 88.87
PSTU | 1 0.00 88.88
PT | 5,258 4.96 93.83
PT do B | 139 0.13 93.96
PTB | 5,383 5.07 99.03
PTC | 140 0.13 99.17
PTdoB | 10 0.01 99.18
PTN | 108 0.10 99.28
PV | 702 0.66 99.94
Recusa | 2 0.00 99.94
Sem partido | 62 0.06 100.00
---------------+-----------------------------------
Total | 106,105 100.00


Thank you in advance!

[Andrew Musau]

You don't provide a data example, so I cannot tell if your variable is a string variable or a numeric variable. Read through FAQ Advice #12 and provide a data example using the dataex command in the future.

String:

replace partido_pref= trim(partido_pref)
replace partido_pref=  "PCdoB" if partido_pref =="PC do B"
replace partido_pref= "PTdoB" if partido_pref=="PT do B"

Numeric:

decode partido_pref, gen(wanted)
drop partido_pref
rename wanted  partido_pref

Then run the code for strings and finally encode the variable to get back to numeric.

[Nick Cox]

Cross-posted at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...rical-variable Please note our cross-posting policy, explicit in the FAQ, which is that you are asked to tell us about it.

[Gabriel Cepaluni]

Thank you so much Andrew! Sorry, Nick! My first time here, and I missed the cross-posted reference:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...rical-variable