Non-numeric String variable

[Palana Bhatia]

Hi All,

I am new to Stata and getting hands on it by using the data. I have cross sectional data for around 90 countries, I want to create dummies for the Countries, but I am getting error that "string variables may not be used as factor variables"

how can I address this problem.

Thanks in advance if any one can help me with this.

[Joseph Coveney]

encode country, generate(cid) label(Countries)
regress whatever i.cid // 90!

help encode

[Joseph Coveney]

I have cross sectional data for around 90 countries

Then I guess that you're not going to put them in as indicator variables into a regression model like I showed, huh. What are you going to do with them?.

[Joro Kolev]

egen, group also has a lable option:

. sysuse auto
(1978 Automobile Data)

. egen mk = group(make), label

. list mk make in 1/10

     +-------------------------------+
     |            mk   make          |
     |-------------------------------|
  1. |   AMC Concord   AMC Concord   |
  2. |     AMC Pacer   AMC Pacer     |
  3. |    AMC Spirit   AMC Spirit    |
  4. | Buick Century   Buick Century |
  5. | Buick Electra   Buick Electra |
     |-------------------------------|
  6. | Buick LeSabre   Buick LeSabre |
  7. |    Buick Opel   Buick Opel    |
  8. |   Buick Regal   Buick Regal   |
  9. | Buick Riviera   Buick Riviera |
 10. | Buick Skylark   Buick Skylark |
     +-------------------------------+

. list mk make in 1/10, nol

     +--------------------+
     | mk   make          |
     |--------------------|
  1. |  1   AMC Concord   |
  2. |  2   AMC Pacer     |
  3. |  3   AMC Spirit    |
  4. |  7   Buick Century |
  5. |  8   Buick Electra |
     |--------------------|
  6. |  9   Buick LeSabre |
  7. | 10   Buick Opel    |
  8. | 11   Buick Regal   |
  9. | 12   Buick Riviera |
 10. | 13   Buick Skylark |
     +--------------------+

.

To manually generate dummies,

. tab make, gen(makedummy)

. des make*

              storage   display    value
variable name   type    format     label      variable label
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
make            str18   %-18s                 Make and Model
makedummy1      byte    %8.0g                 make==AMC Concord
makedummy2      byte    %8.0g                 make==AMC Pacer
makedummy3      byte    %8.0g                 make==AMC Spirit
makedummy4      byte    %8.0g                 make==Audi 5000
makedummy5      byte    %8.0g                 make==Audi Fox
makedummy6      byte    %8.0g                 make==BMW 320i
makedummy7      byte    %8.0g                 make==Buick Century
makedummy8      byte    %8.0g                 make==Buick Electra
makedummy9      byte    %8.0g                 make==Buick LeSabre
makedummy10     byte    %8.0g                 make==Buick Opel


etc.

[William Lisowski]

The elaboration from Joseph Coveney in post #3 suggests that if indeed you have cross-sectional data, you may want to use the Stata XT commands designed for cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Take a look at the Stata Longitudinal-Data/Panel-Data Reference Manual PDF included with your Stata installation and accessible through Stata's Help menu.

In any event, though, you will need a numeric version of your country identifier, as discussed above.