How do I create a dummy variables using a byte format column in Stata?

Question

I have a gender column that says either "Female", "Male", or . for missing entry. I want to create a new column that gives dummy variable 1 if gender is female and 0 is gender is male (and continuing to give . for missing value). I tried to do gen Fem = gender = "Female" but this does not work and I get r(109) error.

I am assuming this is because the gender column is a byte format column.

Also, how do I interact dummy variable column with variables in a regression model on Stata?

• langtang: sounds like your gender variable is already a dummy variable, but simply has value labels. (to see this compare tab gender with tab gender, nolabel). You do not need to create a new variable.
• jehangh1998: True! Male is 1 and Female is 2. However, I want to use the dummy values to interact female with some other variables in the regression I am running. How can I do that with the current column?
• Nick Cox: In Stata we talk of variables, not columns. Also byte is a variable or storage type and not a (display) format.

Answer 1

See help fvvarlist, and check out the information on the binary operator #

For a specific example, see below where I create a 100 row dataset with variables y, x1, x2, and gender, the last of which should be similar to yours (i.e. byte with Male and Female labels)

clear
set obs 100
set seed 123
gen byte gender = runiform()<0.3
recode gender 0=1 1=2
label define gender 1 "Male" 2 "Female"
label values gender gender
gen x1 = runiform()<0.7
gen x2 = runiform()<0.2
gen y = runiform()<0.5

I can include a interaction term using the # operator

regress y x1 x2 x1#gender

• dimitriy: This may be a matter of taste, but I find the output of regress y x2 x1##i.gender more legible and the code easier to scan.