how to rank from highest to lowest

[annettepelkmans]

I'm trying to rank observations, but would like to give no 1 to the highest number. I have tried ranking by using the command below, but i couldn't seem to reverse the ranking in the way I want. bysort group_id (var_to_rank): gen desired_rank = sum(var_to_rank != var_to_rank[_n-1])

[Rich Goldstein]

look at the help for -egen- and, in particular, look at the "rank" function within egen

[Nick Cox]

The manual entry for egen spells out what is a most useful trick here (and a very obvious one once you see the point):

Most applications of rank() will be to one variable, but the argument exp can be more general,
namely, an expression. In particular, rank(-varname) reverses ranks from those obtained by rank(varname).

[annettepelkmans]

Thank you very much!!