I would normally create a new response category for question 2,
NA (not applicable), which is true if question 1 does not equal "yes".
You don't say how your variables are encoded (as strings or numbers -
numbers are better but that's a different question); if as strings
then
replace q2 = "NA" if q1!="yes"
hth,
Jeph
Jillian Flight wrote:
> Hi there,
> I am working on a survey data recode and wanted to see if there is an easy
> way to handle missing values. For instance, if question 1 asks whether or
> not respondent used cocaine in lifetime - and the responses are yes, no,
> don't know and refused. Question 2 (have you used in past 12 months -
> response choices yes, no, dk, ref ) however is asked only of those who
> said yes to question 1 - the no, dk, and refused responses from Question 1
> are missing - - is there a quick and easy way to recode question 2 so that
> it is among the total population - ie. the missing values that are a result
> of respondents saying "no" to question 1 being coded into the "no" of
> question 2 and the dk and refused choices from question 1 which are now
> missing in question 2 - having them coded into the dk and refused of
> question 2? I am currently doing this via a very convaluded method and a
> colleague told me spss is much easier for handling missing values when
> recoding data such as this, but I'm thinking there must be an easy way of
> doing this in stata.
>
> Thanks
>
>
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