In addition to other solutions, one way
to do this is with -egen, repeat()- from
-egenmore- on SSC.
. egen foo = repeat(), values(cat dog rat fish)
Note that there is no need to play around with
-expand-. The values stated are repeated in
sequence, and -repeat()- automatically works
out an appropriate variable type.
It is closer in spirit to -egen, seq()- than to
-egen, fill()-. As the syntax for -egen, fill()-
states clearly that it feeds on a numlist, I
wouldn't expect it to work for string values.
Nick
[email protected]
Wallace, John
I've found the fill() function for egen to be a very valuable tool, but I recently found it doesn't work for repeating patterns of string values. For example, if I wanted to generate a variable containing "cat, dog, rat, fish" for a set of 100 observations, I would first -expand- the observations to 400 by using
.expand 4
and then using my idealized egen situation I'd type
.egen str4 animal = fill(cat, dog, rat, fish, cat, dog, rat, fish) /*possibly with double quotes enclosing the strings - e.g. "fish" */
does such a command exist somewhere?
If not, would a workaround such as the following work? (I'm not at a Stata enabled machine this morning)
.expand 4
.egen animal = fill(1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4)
.label define critter 1 "cat" 2 "dog" 3 "rat" 4 "fish"
.label value animal critter
.decode animal, gen(str_animal)
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