How to take a dichotomous variable (0,1) and make into 2 separate variables

[gtucke1]

The variable is now a dichotomous variable with 0 = spousal and 1 = nonspousal. In order to do analyses comparing these two variables against other variables I think I need to make them each a new variable. Is this correct? If yes, how would I go about doing that? If no, how do I compare these two variables against other variables?

Data X
Set Y
if cg_relation___1 = 1 then cg_relationr = 0;
if cg_relation___2 = 1 then cg_relationr = 1;
if cg_relation___3 = 1 then cg_relationr = 1;
if cg_relation___4 = 1 then cg_relationr = 1;
if cg_relation___5 = 1 then cg_relationr = 1;
if cg_relation___7 = 1 then cg_relationr = 1;
if cg_relation____8 = 1 then cg_relationr = .;
if cg_relation____9 = 1 then cg_relationr = .;
Run;

Thank you for the help. I'm a newbie.

[Tom]

If the only possible meanings are SPOUSAL and NON_SPOUSAL then a single variable with two levels how ever they are coded captures all of the information.  

But what are these other variables you are referencing in the code? 

[ballardw]

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@Tom wrote:

If the only possible meanings are SPOUSAL and NON_SPOUSAL then a single variable with two levels how ever they are coded captures all of the information.  

But what are these other variables you are referencing in the code? 

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@Tom 

I would place a small wager that this comes from some sort of "select one choice question" that has 8 choices. For bonus cash would also wager that 7 is some sort of "Other" with 8 and 9 the equivalents of Don't know, Not applicable and/or Refused to answer and the export dumps the data to one variable per choice.

[PaigeMiller]

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@gtucke1 wrote:

The variable is now a dichotomous variable with 0 = spousal and 1 = nonspousal. In order to do analyses comparing these two variables against other variables I think I need to make them each a new variable. Is this correct?

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No not correct at all.  But you don't tell us what analysis you are going to do,  we'd need to know this in order to advise in more detail.

[gtucke1]

I will be comparing the spousal status (spousal non-spousal) to the number and type of unmet needs. There are 18 different types of needs (health care, education...).

[Tom]

So you have data like:

data have ;
  input id $ spouse need1-need18;

How are you planning to compare them?

Do you just want to look at distributions?

proc means data=have;
  class spouse;
  var need1-need18;
run;

[gtucke1]

I would like to look at distribution but also come up with a total percent of unmet needs for the 18 items.

Of X number of participants, X had __% of unmet needs.