Stata The Stata listserver
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date index][Thread index]

Re: st: simple question


From   Richard Williams <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: simple question
Date   Wed, 02 Jun 2004 15:57:23 -0500

At 03:17 PM 6/2/2004 -0400, Suzy wrote:
Hi, I have continuous variables that are coded 99999 or 77777 for unknown or refused to answer. How do I handle this? I don't want to treat them as missing, if possible.
Thank you.
Suzy
In case we are making this more complicated than what Suzy has in mind, I'll note that she may just want to say something like

recode v1 v2 (77777 = .a)(99999 = .b)

That will keep the MD codes distinct but still result in both being treated as missing.

As a sidelight, I can't say that I am real fond of Stata's way of handling MD. I work with secondary data all the time, and you'll routinely see MD codes of 9, 99, etc. I'm never seen another program or non-Stata data set that handles MD like Stata does.

Also, one weakness I've noticed in Stat/Transfer is that when you convert an SPSS file, all the MD values just get converted to . in Stata. Hence, distinctions between "No answer" and "Not applicable" get lost. Perhaps there is a simpler approach I am missing, but it seems like you would have to undefine the MD codes in SPSS, convert the file, and then recode the values to MD in Stata. If there is a better way, or some option in Stat/Transfer I don't know about, I would like to hear it.


-------------------------------------------
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
OFFICE: (574)631-6668, (574)631-6463
FAX: (574)288-4373
HOME: (574)289-5227
EMAIL: [email protected]
WWW (personal): http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam
WWW (department): http://www.nd.edu/~soc

*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/




© Copyright 1996–2024 StataCorp LLC   |   Terms of use   |   Privacy   |   Contact us   |   What's new   |   Site index