st: RE: Replace missing values by 0

["Lachenbruch, Peter" <Peter.Lachenbruch@oregonstate.edu>]

In all of the discussion of this query, nobody has asked why it is important to do this?  If you are computing means, the 0 values will distort the mean (or median if enough), and if you simply want to ignore zeros with "if x~=0") retaining the missing value will do this automatically.  

I am unsure if I've ever had a reason to convert missing values to a numeric value, but have had many times when the -9 for missing (or whatever) had to be set to "."

Tony

Peter A. Lachenbruch
Department of Public Health
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97330
Phone: 541-737-3832
FAX: 541-737-4001


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Hobst
Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 1:55 AM
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: st: Replace missing values by 0

I have two variabled called "prean" and "pa_kum" that contain missing values.
These missing values i would like to replace by 0 (zero). What command can i
use to do this? 

Thanks in advance for your support. Regards
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