Unless there are further complications as yet unrevealed,
bysort id : gen visits = _N
is a direct and simple solution.
If you just wanted to count a subset, then
gen interesting = <binary variable defining interesting> bysort
interesting id : gen interesting_visits = _N if interesting
There are -egen- routes as well, but for problems like this going back
to basics is difficult to beat.
See also
SJ-2-1 pr0004 . . . . . . . . . . Speaking Stata: How to move step
by: step
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N.
J. Cox
Q1/02 SJ 2(1):86--102 (no
commands)
explains the use of the by varlist : construct to tackle
a variety of problems with group structure, ranging from
simple calculations for each of several groups to more
advanced manipulations that use the built-in _n and _N
if a tutorial is needed. That's free on-line at the Stata Journal
website.
Note that even if you did want a collapsed dataset, -contract- rather
than -collapse- is more direct.
Nick [email protected]
Shehzad Ali
Hi Martin and Josiane,
Thank you for your replies. You are right that I am interested in the
total count of visits for each patient and not the running sum.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that patients who had three visits, for
instance, have three observations, and those with two visits have two
observations. Therefore, the total number of observations for 100
patients is less than 400 (I had made up hypothetical numbers in haste to
simplify the case. Not always a good idea).
With Martin's solution, I will need to have four observations for each
patient (sorry this was my fault as I didn't provide the correct
information). With Josiane's suggestion, the dataset collapses which is
not what I want.
Can you suggest a modified solution please? Again, sorry for the unclear
email earlier.
On Apr 15 2009, Martin Weiss wrote:
I am betting that you want a count of visits, not a running sum, but
correct me if I am wrong...
clear*
set obs 400
egen float patient = seq(), from(1) to(400) block(4)
egen float visit = seq(), from(1) to(4) block(1)
//not strictly necessary
xtset patient visit
//less than 4 visits for some
replace visit =. if runiform()<0.05
bys patient: egen overallvisits=count(visit)
l in 1/20, sepby(patient) noo
*************
Shehzad Ali
I have a simple question about summing across observations. I have 100
patients (variable: patient_id) in the dataset, each had clinic visits
(variable: clinic) and hospital visits (variable: hospital) recorded at
weeks 4, 8, 12 and 16. The dataset is long and hence I have 400
observations (one observation per patient per time point).
I want to sum the clinic visits for each patient (across all 4 visits)
bearing in mind that some patients had less than 4 visits. So
effectively
I want to generate a new variable that will produce the sum of clinic
visits for each patient.
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