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Re: st: age: factor variables may not contain noninteger values
From
Nick Cox <[email protected]>
To
[email protected]
Subject
Re: st: age: factor variables may not contain noninteger values
Date
Tue, 8 Nov 2011 19:57:38 +0000
I agree, naturally; it's perhaps a question of whether other studies
in your field would use the same recipe.
Nick
On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 7:47 PM, Lars Folkestad <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thats true but biologically when i'm 39years and 10 months i'm closer to
> 40 than 39.
> Im not sure it makes a difference but it might - floor may potentially
> underestimate the effect of age.
>
> lars
>
> Den 08/11/11 20.39 skrev "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>:
>
>>All that said, as age as an integer usually means "age last birthday",
>>I am surprised that -round()- is regarded as the answer. I would put
>>my foot down for -floor()-.
>>
>>For example, I am 19 and will not be 20 until next birthday.
>>
>>Nick
>>
>>On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 7:29 PM, Lars Folkestad <[email protected]>
>>wrote:
>>> Thank you for that jesper. It sure did the trick.
>>> lars
>>>
>>> Den 08/11/11 13.17 skrev "Jesper Lindhardsen" <[email protected]>:
>>>
>>>>Hi Lars,
>>>>
>>>>Try
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>g new_age= round(age_var,1)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>HTH,
>>>>
>>>>Jesper
>>>>
>>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>>From: [email protected]
>>>>[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lars
>>>>Folkestad
>>>>Sent: 08 November 2011 12:14
>>>>To: [email protected]
>>>>Subject: Re: st: age: factor variables may not contain noninteger values
>>>>
>>>>This helps a lot.
>>>>Thank you.
>>>>
>>>>But i have a question about the second point.
>>>>Is there a quick and easy way to round the age to the nearest integer
>>>>value? I could use the floor / ceil functions, but some of the ages
>>>>Should be rounded up and some should be rounded down.
>>>>
>>>>lars
>>>>
>>>>Den 08/11/11 11.40 skrev "Maarten Buis" <[email protected]>:
>>>>
>>>>>On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 11:13 AM, Lars Folkestad wrote:
>>>>>> I am trying to investigate the interactions between age and a
>>>>grouping
>>>>>>variable in a regression model, using this code:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> xi: regress Var1 age##i.group
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Var1: is a continuous variable
>>>>>> Age: is a continous variable / float
>>>>>>
>>>>>> When i run the code i get the following error message:
>>>>>> age: factor variables may not contain noninteger values
>>>>>
>>>>>First, you are mixing -xi- and factor variable notation. You should
>>>>>just leave the -xi:- prefix away.
>>>>>
>>>>>Second, in most surveys I am aware of age will be measured in whole
>>>>>years. In those cases age should only contain integer values and this
>>>>>error message means I made an error while preparing the data. This is
>>>>>true regardless of how the data is stored. However, this is not
>>>>>necessarily an error, you could have fractional age if you had for
>>>>>instance exact birth dates and exact dates at which events of interest
>>>>>happen. Alternatively, I may have standardized age or rescaled it so
>>>>>it is measured in decades rather than years. However, in the latter
>>>>>two cases I would have created new with different variable names
>>>>>(probably z_age and age_d). So I would check whether non-integer age
>>>>>would make sense given the way your data was collected.
>>>>>
>>>>>Third, whether there is an error or not you probably want -regress
>>>>>var1 c.age##i.group- i.e. tread age as a continuous variable and not
>>>>>as a set of dummies.
>>>>>
>>>>>Hope this helps,
>>>>>Maarten
>>>>>
>>>>>--------------------------
>>>>>Maarten L. Buis
>>>>>Institut fuer Soziologie
>>>>>Universitaet Tuebingen
>>>>>Wilhelmstrasse 36
>>>>>72074 Tuebingen
>>>>>Germany
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>http://www.maartenbuis.nl
>>>>>--------------------------
>>>>>
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