In Stata, how do I recode an existing variable?

To recode variables in Stata, use the recode command. This command requires a list of variables to be recoded with the rules associated with that change.

Suppose you have a variable q1 that contains integers ranging from 1 to 7. The following example collapses the values into three categories:

In the example above, the values of 1 and 2 become 1; 3, 4, and 5 are changed into 2; and 6 and 7 are coded as 3. Note that 3/5 refers to values ranging from 3 through 5 (the beginning and end of the range).

Once the recode command is executed, you cannot recover the original values. If you want to recode and store changes into a new variable new_q1, use the gen() option:

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