st: RE: Reading txt file with missing value

[Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

I've found Stata perfectly capable of mapping ,, to implied missings, so 
I doubt that this is the nub of the issue. 

I suspect that we need more precise detail from Kim. 

Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 

Kay Walker

You need to edit the text file using an editor program like emacs or 
UUedit before importing into Stata. Choose a suitable value for the 
"Missing" category- a value that would never be a part of the data that 
is valid, eg. 9 when all valid data is in the range 1 to 5. Then you 
need to label the values in the variables, including a label "missing" 
for the 9s. You don't say whether you have a case or column delimiter 
like a space, comma or tab- this would slightly change how  you import 
your data and would make it easier to edit- you could change all the 
instances where there is a double delimiter (like ,,) to ,9, in one 
operation.
This is the simplest method I can think of- programmers may have 
something easier.

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