Request for guidance on how to combine more than one variables into one single variable

[KWIZERA LAMBERT]

Dear all,
I request for assistance or guidance on how to combine more than one variable into one single variable. For instance, as you can see in the attachment, I am seeking to combine variables: "Telephone, Radio, Television, Bicycle and Motorbike" into one variable. The goal is to create a variable which indicates "household living standards (Wealth)"

It is even suggested to combine these variables: "Home electricity, Telephone, Radio, Television, Bicycle, Motorbike" to create VARIABLE.

Another variables also: "Clean water, clean sanitation"may also be combined to create a single variable.

Thanks

[Maarten Buis]

It is a good idea to give an example dataset for us to work with. However, not the way you have done now. A picture does nothing for us: we are not going to type in your data. So forget about that. A file we need to download is also a big problem. We don't know you. So you are asking us to download a file from a unknown person on the internet. Given the number of attacks going on now, that is a very bad idea.

Instead we ask you to provide an example dataset using dataex. You have been told this before. Have you tried dataex and Stata gave you an error, or did you not understand the output, or something else? Tell us, and we can help you.

This is something that needs to be fixed before we can answer your actual question.

[Nick Cox]

Maarten Buis gives excellent advice and it's no more than is requested in https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#stata -- which every member here is asked to read before posting.

That said, what does combine mean here? Sometimes the sum of a bunch of indicator variables may seem a good thing to try, and if so it is just addition or if you prefer use of egen function rowtotal().

Otherwise, see https://www.stata-journal.com/articl...article=dm0034 for some simple notes that may help.

[KWIZERA LAMBERT]

Maarten Buis I am very sorry for acting the way I acted. I honestly posted the question out of ignorance due to the reason of not reading the guidance found in this link: https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#stata. I should have read it before posting. I thank you so much for this. I am aware of ongoing attacks. I really understand you. Actually, I posted those attachments, thinking they may provide clearly a picture of the problem I have. Next, I will consider using dataex. I appreciate a lot for your help, thank you.

Nick Cox Thank you for the link. I will attempt the commands and will read the article to see if it may help.

Thank you so much

Lambert KWIZERA
Independent Consultant and Research
AgriConsult Group Rwanda
Rwanda