combining multiple strings from 2 string variables into a number in one numeric variable

[Cristina Santos]

Hi,

I have two string variables with non-formatted responses from a survey. These refer to the level of education on each parent. I would like to combine those two string variables into a numeric variable, where various strpos are combined into one number.

For example, looking at the data below (it's in Portuguese, sorry) I'd like to generate a new variable stating whether both parents had attended higher education or not. So I need to know:
1) How can I first convert the multiple strpos of each variable that might refer to HE into one number?
2) How could I then combine the same number of both parents into the new variable to represent both parents having attended HE?

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Cristina:
since you neither provide and example/except of your data via -dataex- (BTW: please note tha FAQ discourage posting attachments for sound reasons) nor detail when from what level of education a "higher education" is actually pursued according to Portuguese education system, guess-work and a toy-examples are the best resources:

. set obs 2
Number of observations (_N) was 0, now 2.

. g Father_edu="Superior"

. replace Father_edu="Primary" in 2
(1 real change made)

. g Mother_edu="Superior"

. g Check_edu=0 if Father_edu!=Mother_edu
(1 missing value generated)

. replace Check_edu=1 if Father_edu==Mother_edu
(1 real change made)

. label define Check_edu 0 "Education levels differ" 1 "Both mother and father pursued superior education level"

. label val Check_edu Check_edu

. list

     +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
     | Father~u   Mother~u                                                 Check_edu |
     |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
  1. | Superior   Superior   Both mother and father pursued superior education level |
  2. |  Primary   Superior                                   Education levels differ |
     +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

.

[Cristina Santos]

Dear Carlo,

Thank you for the support and explanation despite the limited detail on my part. This has helped indeed.

Kind regards,
Cristina