Multiple choice variable

[Kehinde Akinlagun]

Good day everyone,

i am trying to make a cross tab analysis and I have a question regarding one of my variables.
i have a multiple choice variable and would like to convert them into a likert scale format.
Question: Which of the COVID-19 preventive measures have you followed during the pandemic?
Answers
1. Self-isolation
2. Social distancing
3. Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport
4. Wearing gloves
5. Use of hand sanitizers
I would like to classify them as the following:
1 scale: if respondents selected any one the results above
2 scale: if respondents selected any two the results above
3 scale: if respondents selected any three the results above
4 scale: if respondents selected any four the results above
5 scale: if respondents selected any five the results above
This is what it looks like now with 17 sets of options, but will like to break it down to those 5 scales.
Which of the COVID-19 |
preventive measures |
have you followed | Sex
during the pandemic? | Female Male | Total
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation | 1 4 | 5
| 0.58 1.99 | 1.34
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation, Socia | 2 0 | 2
| 1.16 0.00 | 0.54
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation, Socia | 0 2 | 2
| 0.00 1.00 | 0.54
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation, Socia | 1 0 | 1
| 0.58 0.00 | 0.27
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation, Socia | 24 26 | 50
| 13.95 12.94 | 13.40
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation, Socia | 1 0 | 1
| 0.58 0.00 | 0.27
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation, Socia | 95 118 | 213
| 55.23 58.71 | 57.10
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Self-isolation, Weari | 1 0 | 1
| 0.58 0.00 | 0.27
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Social distancing | 1 1 | 2
| 0.58 0.50 | 0.54
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Social distancing, We | 2 2 | 4
| 1.16 1.00 | 1.07
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Social distancing, We | 24 17 | 41
| 13.95 8.46 | 10.99
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Social distancing, We | 15 23 | 38
| 8.72 11.44 | 10.19
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Social distancing, We | 0 1 | 1
| 0.00 0.50 | 0.27
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Use of hand sanitizer | 1 2 | 3
| 0.58 1.00 | 0.80
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Wearing facemasks in | 2 1 | 3
| 1.16 0.50 | 0.80
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Wearing facemasks in | 1 1 | 2
| 0.58 0.50 | 0.54
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Wearing facemasks in | 1 3 | 4
| 0.58 1.49 | 1.07
----------------------+----------------------+----------
Total | 172 201 | 373
| 100.00 100.00 | 100.00

Pearson chi2(16) = 14.7440 Pr = 0.543

Will be grateful for the assistance
Thank you.

[Nick Cox]

If it is a single variable, how can respondents pick more than one option?

We need a data example please to make clear how you are holding these data. https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#stata explains.

[Kehinde Akinlagun]

It's a multiple choice section in my questionnaire so I have 17 sets of answers but would like to make them into a 5 scale format. its in a string format and would like to convert to a variable 5 scale format.
example of responses from 373 students:
WhichoftheCOVID19preventive_N
Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers
Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers
Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers
Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers
Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers
Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers

[Kehinde Akinlagun]

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input str124 WhichoftheCOVID19preventive
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation"
"Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
--more--

[Nick Cox]

So, your answers are in a string variable separated by commas. The answer is just to count the commas and add 1. You count the commas by getting Stata to calculate the length of the string and also the length that the string would be if you omitted the commas. That small trick is written up at https://www.stata-journal.com/articl...article=dm0056

Some resources are

the split command

https://www.stata-journal.com/articl...article=st0082 (but download software using ssc install mrtab)

https://www.stata-journal.com/articl...article=pr0008

tabm and tabsplit from ssc install tab_chi

clear
input str124 WhichoftheCOVID19preventive
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation"
"Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
"Self-isolation, Social distancing, Wearing facemasks in public settings or transport, Wearing gloves, Use of hand sanitizers"
end 

gen wanted = 1 + (strlen(Which) - strlen(subinstr(Which, ",", "", .)))

tab wanted 

    wanted |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
          1 |          1        4.17        4.17
          2 |          1        4.17        8.33
          3 |          5       20.83       29.17
          4 |          6       25.00       54.17
          5 |         11       45.83      100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
      Total |         24      100.00

tabsplit Which, parse(,) sort 

            WhichoftheCOVID19preventive |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
Wearing facemasks in public settings .. |         23       23.71       23.71
                      Social distancing |         22       22.68       46.39
                 Use of hand sanitizers |         22       22.68       69.07
                         Self-isolation |         16       16.49       85.57
                         Wearing gloves |         14       14.43      100.00
----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
                                  Total |         97      100.00

[Kehinde Akinlagun]

Thank you for the assistance.
I have 373 responses but can only view 100. how can i view the remaining?

[Nick Cox]

If you are alluding to the default limit of dataex, then see its help for the option count().

Otherwise what limit are you referring to?

[Kehinde Akinlagun]

Yes, i'm referring to datex limit. what are the options to view the rest (373) so I can put in your command

[Kehinde Akinlagun]

Yes, i'm referring to dataex limit. what are the options to view the rest (373) so I can put in your command.

[Nick Cox]

help dataex

as already suggested.

[Kehinde Akinlagun]

Will do that...Thanks once again