How to generate dummy variable from a String variable

[afiour rahaman]

Hello.
I have a string variable which has multiple response such as "1,3", "6,96" etc. Now I want to create a dummy variable for each response. I have tried strops but it has problems for two or three-digit responses sucha s for "96" it gives values in 6 , 9 and 96. How to solve it?

clear input str4 cards_hh "3" "1" "2" "1,2" "1" "4,96" "1,3" "96" "3" "1,3" "6,96" "2" "88" "1" "1,2,3,88" "4,96" "1" "2,3"

[Nick Cox]

Thanks for your data example. It's contradictory as a value such as "1,2,3,88" could not fix inside a str4 variable! That may be one of your problems.

I don't know what strops (or strops) means here.

If it's a community-contributed command, you're asked to explain where it comes from (FAQ Advice #12).

Perhaps you mean string operators; either way we can't explain what is problematic about code you don't show us.

Here is some technique that may help.

clear 
input str42 cards_hh 
"3" 
"1" 
"2" 
"1,2" 
"1" 
"4,96" 
"1,3" 
"96" 
"3" 
"1,3" 
"6,96" 
"2" 
"88" 
"1" 
"1,2,3,88" 
"4,96" 
"1" 
"2,3"
end 

split cards_hh, p(,) destring 

local splitvars `r(varlist)'

local levels 

foreach v in `r(varlist)' { 

levelsof `v', local(work) clean 

local levels : list levels | work 

} 

local levels : list sort levels 

foreach level of local levels { 
    gen is`level' = 0 
    foreach v of local splitvars { 
        replace is`level' = 1 if `v' == `level'
    }
}

list cards_hh is*

     +------------------------------------------------------+
     | cards_hh   is1   is2   is3   is4   is6   is88   is96 |
     |------------------------------------------------------|
  1. |        3     0     0     1     0     0      0      0 |
  2. |        1     1     0     0     0     0      0      0 |
  3. |        2     0     1     0     0     0      0      0 |
  4. |      1,2     1     1     0     0     0      0      0 |
  5. |        1     1     0     0     0     0      0      0 |
     |------------------------------------------------------|
  6. |     4,96     0     0     0     1     0      0      1 |
  7. |      1,3     1     0     1     0     0      0      0 |
  8. |       96     0     0     0     0     0      0      1 |
  9. |        3     0     0     1     0     0      0      0 |
 10. |      1,3     1     0     1     0     0      0      0 |
     |------------------------------------------------------|
 11. |     6,96     0     0     0     0     1      0      1 |
 12. |        2     0     1     0     0     0      0      0 |
 13. |       88     0     0     0     0     0      1      0 |
 14. |        1     1     0     0     0     0      0      0 |
 15. | 1,2,3,88     1     1     1     0     0      1      0 |
     |------------------------------------------------------|
 16. |     4,96     0     0     0     1     0      0      1 |
 17. |        1     1     0     0     0     0      0      0 |
 18. |      2,3     0     1     1     0     0      0      0 |
     +------------------------------------------------------+

[afiour rahaman]

That works fine. Thank you.