--- Philip Sinclair <[email protected]> wrote:
> I would like to make a categorical variable with approximately even
> order categories, but I have found
> that xtile does not always quite do the trick. Please is there an
> alternative?
If -xtile- does not give you categories with approximately the same
number of observations then that would indicate that there are some
extreme ties or spikes in your data. With such extreme ties almost any
automated procedure will fail. In that case you should have a good look
at your data and see if there is some substantive reason behind this
clustering. You could use for instance -spikeplot var-, where var is
the variable in question. For example, if you ask people how many hours
a week they work the answer will typically be a multiple of 4 (i.e.
half an 8-hour workday) and there will be a spike at 36 or 38 or 40
depending on what's considered full time, which differs between the
countries. Once you have found such a substantive reason I would try to
use that to classify people into different categories.
Hope this helps,
Maarten
-----------------------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Department of Social Research Methodology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
visiting address:
Buitenveldertselaan 3 (Metropolitan), room N515
+31 20 5986715
http://home.fsw.vu.nl/m.buis/
-----------------------------------------
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