st: sum command

["Baoyan Cheng" <chengba@gse.harvard.edu>]

Hi, there,

Does anyone know the correct command for doing sum in STATA?

I need to add together seven variables to form one measure called �anxiety.� I could simply add 
all the seven variables together, but STATA would drop any observation that misses one of the 
seven variables. I want STATA to treat missing values as 0 if at least one of the seven variables 
is not missing, and that's what the command �sum� is supposed to do (I thought).

I tried the following commands, but none of them worked:

1)egen anxi_sum=rsum (careopin, nervoppsex,nervsocial, nervpublic, worrlaug, worrdrop, worrburd)
2)egen anxi_sum=sum (careopin, nervoppsex,nervsocial, nervpublic, worrlaug, worrdrop, worrburd)
3)gen anxi_sum=sum (careopin, nervoppsex,nervsocial, nervpublic, worrlaug, worrdrop, worrburd)

The first was said to be "invalid syntax"; the second one "variables in the parentheses are
invalid names"; and the third one "sum not found."

Any feedback will be really appreciated.

Baoyan


_________________________________________

Baoyan Cheng
Doctoral Student
Administration, Planning and Social Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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