How to replace string values for a variable with numeric values (not labels).

[anisha arya]

I have a string variable 'businessincome' such as:

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str68 businessincome
""  
""  
""  
""  
""  
""  
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
"10"
end

Now, I want to replace "11" with the numeric (not label) value 1, "4" with 2, "6" with 3 and "8" with 4, "10" with 5, and "12" as missing.

Thanks

[Nick Cox]

gen wanted = _n

may help.

[Clyde Schechter]

There is no single official Stata command that will replace a string variable with numbers. So you have to create a new variable. Then you can drop the original and rename the new one to the original's name. There are several simple ways to create the new variable. Here's one.

label define junk    1 "11"    ///
                    2 "4"    ///
                    3 "6"    ///
                    4 "8"    ///
                    5 "10"    ///
                    .a "12"
encode businessincome, gen(wanted) label(junk)
replace wanted = . if wanted == .a
label drop junk

[Clyde Schechter]

Re #2. I don't see how that advice applies to the question posed. What am I missing?

[Nick Cox]

#2 was an answer to the original version of #1 which was quite different.