st: Re: scrolling over observations

["Michael Blasnik" <michael.blasnik@verizon.net>]

Try the encode command.  It seems to do exactly what you are trying to do, 
automatically

encode CoName, gen(conameN)

Michael Blasnik
michael.blasnik@verizon.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. J. Clovis, Economics" <Joel.Clovis@bristol.ac.uk>
To: <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 2:39 PM
Subject: st: scrolling over observations



> Dear listers,
>
> I have been trying to scroll through observations of a variable and assign 
> an identifying code to each occurrence of a key value.
>
> For example, I want to scroll though the variable CoName and give each 
> occurrence of the company BCA, say, the code 4, say. I want to arrange it 
> so that the 1st company (in alpha order) receives code 1 and the last, 680 
> or whatever is the maximum number of companies in the database.
>
> I have tried the following which gives me a '1' at the start of the 
> occurrence of a new company name and zeros for all other occurrences for 
> that company:
>
> gen new=0
> local count =0
> bysort CoName: replace new = `count'+1  if CoName[_n] ~= CoName[_n-1]
> count = `count'+1
>
>
> Can anyone say where I'm going wrong.  It may help to know that I do not 
> know 'a priori' the number of companies in the dataset or indeed how many 
> times each companies is observed.
>
> I did look at the FAQs on the STATA website but could not understand much 
> of what was said there.  Although the for command should help, I can't 
> seem to get it to do the above.
>
> I have been away from this list for a number of years and so protocol may 
> have moved on, so if I am breaching any please excuse my ignorance.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Kind regards
>
> J.S. Clovis,
>
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