st: Generating Identifier based on string variable

[Dawood Ashraf <dawood_ashraf@yahoo.com>]

I am trying to generate a new identifier variable based on names of individuals. The shape of the data is as follows:

Name   Date
Mark    1990

Mark     1991
Mark      1992

Marry    1990

Marry     1991

Marry     1992

Marry  1993

Chris   1993

Bob      1992


Now I want to generate a new variable, Identifier which assign unique number to Mark, Marry, Chris and Bob as 1,2,3,4.

I have looked in the help but could not find anything suitable. I have seen once a question similar to this on STATA and applied myself but somehow skipped from my mind. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Dawood


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