Recode an existing variable in Stata

To recode variables in Stata, use the recode command. To use recode, you must provide a list of variables to be recoded and the rules associated with that change.

For a variable (for example, q1) that contains integers ranging from 1 to 7, to collapse the values into three categories, use:

recode q1 1=1 2=1 3/5=2 6=3 7=3

In the example above:

• The values of 1 and 2 are recoded as 1.
• The values of 3, 4, 5 are recoded as 2; the forward slash (/) denotes a range of values (for example, from 3 to 5), including the beginning and end of the range.
• The values of 6 and 7 are recoded as 3.

After using recode, you cannot recover the original values. To recode and store changes into a new variable (for example, new_q1), combine recode with the gen() option:

recode q1 1/2=1 3/5=2 6/7=3, gen(new_q1)

For additional help, see the recode help file within Stata (in Stata, enter help recode).