Re: st: newbie if {} else {} question

[Kaleb Michaud <kaleb@arthritis-research.org>]

Here's a quickee reply (since I imagine there are few more on the way) as I 
had this problem a lot when I first started to learn Stata.

First - the if and else statements aren't meant to be used with variables 
in a general sense.  When you use the if statement, usually best to use it 
with a scalar or macro of some sort whereas the variables are best to be 
used in the function argument of a generate/replace statement.

Second - the reason you're getting everything to be 3 is because the first 
observation (I'm betting) has probip=1 and promig=0 and so it executes the 
command gen ascertgp=3 for all observations because the if/else is true.

Here's one way to do all of this using the cond() and inlist function:

gen ascertgp = cond(probip==1, cond(promig==1,1,3),cond(promig==1,2,4)) if 
inlist(probip,0,1)==1 & inlist(promig,0,1)==1

Easier to understand way might be to generate it the first time and then 
replace:

gen ascertgo = 1 if probip==1 & promig==1
replace ascertgo = 2 if probip==0 & promig==1
etc.

Good luck!
Kaleb...

At 02:26 PM 9/19/2002 -0500, you wrote:

> I've just started learning Stata syntax after long years of SAS use and am
> completely stumped by a result.  I want to create a new 4-level variable
> (ascertgp) based on the crosstabulation of 2 dichotomous variables (probip
> and promig).  This is the syntax I wrote:
>
> if      probip==1 & promig==1 {
>   gen ascertgp=1
> }
> else if probip==0 & promig==1 {
>   gen ascertgp=2
> }
> else if probip==1 & promig==0 {
>   gen ascertgp=3
> }
> else if probip==0 & promig==0 {
>   gen ascertgp=4
> }
>
> When I run tab1 ascertgp I get a value of 3 for every observation.  (I
> know what the 4 frequencies should be from the crosstab.)  I must be doing
> something very obviously wrong, but can see what it is.
>
>
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