st: combining variables

[Thomas Norris <T.Norris2@lboro.ac.uk>]

Dear statalisters,

I am entering values for; l, m, s for males and females in my dataset. The values of l, m, s depend not only on sex but also on age at birth, for example, males of 32weeks would have l=0.95, m=1.8 and s=0.18, whereas females of the same age would have l=0.89, m=1.71 and s=0.187. 

I started generating the l,m,s scores for males at 32 weeks using 'gen l=0.95 if gest==32 & sex==0' 'gen m=1.80 if gest==32 & sex==0' 'gen s=0.180 if gest==32 & sex==0' 
and then for females at 32 weeks using gen 'l2=0.89 if gest==32 & sex==1' 'gen m2=1.71 if gest==32 & sex==1' 'gen s2=0.187 if gest==32 & sex==0'.

This is quite time consuming as I have to enter l,m,s scores for males and females for each week from 32-42. Is there a quicker way of entering these?

Furthermore, as you can see, if I continue until 42 weeks, I will have variables going from l-l22, m-m22 and s-s22. How can I combine these so I finish with only 1 variable for each?
I looked at the literature and thought -forvalues- might do this job, but I was unsuccessful.

Any help would be really appreciated,

Tom 


Tom Norris (PhD student)
Centre of Global Health and Human Development
School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Loughborough University
Loughborough
LE11 3TU


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