CODEWITHSUNDEEP
groupingstata
user2898054
user2898054

Reputation: 31

Create unique personal id

I have a Stata data set like this:

HouseholdId  PersonId OtherVariables
1               1
1               2                 
2               1
2               2
3               1
3               2

Here HouseholdId is a unique identifier for each household and PersonId is a unique identifier for each person in a household. If I want to create a unique personal id for each person within the sample, period. How would I do this?

I have tried egen per_id = group(PersonID HouseholdID) but that doesn't seem to work.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 234

Answers (1)

Nick Cox
Nick Cox

Reputation: 37208

I take it that you want a unique identifier for each person within the entire dataset. That could be just 

sort HouseholdId PersonId 
gen long obs Id = _n

as follows from an accessible discussion in this Stata FAQ. That would have been found by typing in Stata 

search identifier

or even 

search id

(Meta-answer: You can and should look within Stata for information on basic notions like this.)

I add a strong recommendation that the word unique still carries its original meaning of appearing once only. The word distinct is, I suggest, a much better word when that is what you mean. More on that on p.558 of this paper.

Upvotes: 1

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