Dear Statalist, I need to calculate the difference between two percentages coming from two different tables for two years (see below). My aim is to get for instance: 50.21-43.48 which is the difference between the percentages of positions 11 (table 2020) and 11 (table 2017). The same for 63.92-57.74, and so on...

Is there an easy way (avoiding to calculate first the variables for the 6 column totals for each table one by one, then building the count for each category and dividing all this. And thus making the difference between such a variables) for obtaining such a table of those differences in Stata? I give you a dataset example below for if it helps.

Thanks in advance.

Code:
           |                                x2
        x1 |         1          2          3          4          5          6 |     Total
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
         1 |       427      2,325        594        837        684          5 |     4,872 
           |     43.48      57.74      55.93      61.27      60.32      33.33 |     56.74 
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
         2 |       386      1,319        352        469        376          5 |     2,907 
           |     39.31      32.75      33.15      34.33      33.16      33.33 |     33.86 
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
         3 |       169        383        116         60         74          5 |       807 
           |     17.21       9.51      10.92       4.39       6.53      33.33 |      9.40 
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
     Total |       982      4,027      1,062      1,366      1,134         15 |     8,586 
           |    100.00     100.00     100.00     100.00     100.00     100.00 |    100.00
Code:
           |                                x2
        x1 |         1          2          3          4          5          6 |     Total
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
         1 |       363      2,927        614        964        851          5 |     5,724 
           |     50.21      63.92      60.37      60.02      63.18      35.71 |     61.64 
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
         2 |       279      1,339        344        590        435          6 |     2,993 
           |     38.59      29.24      33.82      36.74      32.29      42.86 |     32.23 
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
         3 |        81        313         59         52         61          3 |       569 
           |     11.20       6.84       5.80       3.24       4.53      21.43 |      6.13 
-----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
     Total |       723      4,579      1,017      1,606      1,347         14 |     9,286 
           |    100.00     100.00     100.00     100.00     100.00     100.00 |    100.00
Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input float(x1 x2 year)
2 1 2017
2 1 2020
1 5 2020
1 4 2020
1 4 2020
1 4 2020
1 1 2017
2 2 2017
1 3 2020
1 4 2020
3 4 2020
3 1 2020
1 5 2017
1 3 2020
. 3 2017
1 3 2017
1 4 2017
. 1 2017
2 3 2017
1 3 2017
3 2 2020
1 5 2017
3 1 2017
1 3 2020
1 5 2020
2 4 2020
2 4 2020
. 1 2017
2 4 2017
1 2 2020
1 4 2020
. 1 2020
2 5 2017
1 4 2020
1 3 2020
2 2 2020
1 4 2017
3 4 2020
3 3 2017
1 2 2017
1 5 2017
1 3 2020
. 1 2017
1 3 2017
3 1 2020
1 4 2020
1 4 2020
1 4 2020
1 4 2017
2 1 2020
1 5 2020
1 3 2017
1 3 2017
2 3 2017
1 2 2017
1 5 2017
2 3 2020
1 1 2017
1 4 2017
3 1 2017
2 2 2020
2 1 2017
1 5 2017
1 4 2020
end