Stata does very little automatically. One thing that it does do automatically is create a variable _n that contains the observation number or record number. However, as soon as you sort or do something with the data set, these _ns will change. So, to create the variable you seem to want, you'll want to use the generate command (usually abbreviated gen):
gen case_id = _n
I encourage you to play with Stata, including the very good help facilities. You'll learn a lot quickly by simply diving in! Good luck.
Eric
>Is there a STATA command that automatically generates a case id for each
>record in a dataset?
>
>Thank you for your help in advance.
>
>Seok-Woo Kwon
>Email: [email protected]
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Eric G. Wruck
Econalytics
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