st: Encoding string variables: the one var that has no variance encodes differently than the rest

[David de Jong <davidcdejong@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

New Stata (12.1) user here, and I'm a first time poster. I hope
someone might be able to help with something. I've searched the web,
help files, and archives to no avail.

I tried to encode a series of variables (type str5), with the following:

qui foreach v of var var1-var10 {
    encode `v', generate(`v'_encoded)
}

All of the variables seemed to convert as they should (to type long),
except for the only variable that also happened to have no variance:
all cases in the original variable had the string "TRUE." Instead of
converting to a "2" as did all instances of "TRUE" in the other
variables, it was converted to "1."

The same problem appears when I try it like this:

encode var1, generate(var1_encoded)

I'd be very grateful for any insights into what might be going on.

D. de Jong

~
Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology
University of Rochester
498c Meliora Hall
Rochester, NY 14627
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