Re: st: from value to varnames

[Phil Schumm <pschumm@uchicago.edu>]

On May 18, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Richard Goldstein wrote:
> I have a data set with 3 variables: field, cat, order; there are 258  
> observations
>
> I want the 258 observations in field to be 258 variables where the  
> name of the value in field becomes the new variable name; I want to  
> keep the associated values of the other two fields
>
> For example, say that the first observation has the following values:
>
> field		cat 	order
> namea		A	1
>
> I want a new set of variables such that I have a variable called  
> "namea" and I still have cat (of "A") and order (of "1") -- but  
> remember that I should now have 258 variables--cat and order can be  
> joined as the value for each variable; thus, for the example above,  
> the first variable (namea) would now have the value "A1"


If you're interested in an off-the-shelf routine, then Nick's -sxpose-  
will do the trick:

gen value = cat + string(order)
keep field value
sxpose, clear force firstnames


-- Phil

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