having problem in recoding

[karthick veerapandian]

Dear Statalist,

I am facing problem in decoding string variable. For example, the following command has been called to recode.

recode Var=1 if var1== 1-2.

because my variable is in string format which is attached here. When I tried using the above said command i have got a "type mismatch" error. So kindly can anyone help me to solve the problem.

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Karthich:

. replace Var="1" if Var=="1-2"
(1 real change made)

. list

     +-----+
     | Var |
     |-----|
  1. |   1 |
     +-----+

.

[William Lisowski]

If var1 is a string variable, then you need to compare it to a string constant.

... if var1=="1-2"

With that said, your recode command is incorrect. Perhaps what you want is

generate int Var = .
replace Var = 1 if var1=="1-2"
replace Var = 2 if ...
...

Alternatively

encode var1, generate(Var)
label list Var

will create a numeric variable with values 1, 2, ... and with value labels assigned so they are displayed as the strings were displayed. But the assignment of values to strings will perhaps not be what you have in mind.

label define Var 1 "1-2" 2 "1-3" ...
encode var1, generate(Var) label(Var)
label list Var

will allow you to specify the value you want associated with each string.

[karthick veerapandian]

Dear Carlo and William,

Thank you so much for your timely help. Your suggestions worked very well.

Thanks and regards

Karthick.V