st: RE: RE: Copying the contents of existing variables into a new variable

[Lucie Vlach <Lucie.Vlach@albertahealthservices.ca>]

Hello again!
Thank you Nick and Ronnie!
egen newvar = rowmax(var1 var2) (from Ronnie) and your confirmation of my command is very helpful!

But for some reason the var1 values are changed once they end up in var3. Var1 changes from the actual value of 699659108 (correct one) to 699659136. But the var2 (value of 571000128) stays correct in var 3.

Var1 and var2 come from 2 appended 2 datasets (var 1 from dataset1 and var2 from dataset2), but I made sure that both variables are recasted as double before I try the var3 creation command.

I also tested this all on someone else's computer using their Stata, just to make sure my Stata is working fine. The same problem happened there, too.

Do I need the vars to be in certain format before I create var3?

Thank you!

Lucie

________________________________________
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Nick Cox [n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk]
Sent: May 24, 2012 12:43 PM
To: 'statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu'
Subject: st: RE: Copying the contents of existing variables into a new variable

The -generate- command you give is fine.

. clear

. input var1  var2

          var1       var2
  1. 345    .
  2. 345    .
  3. 345    .
  4. 345    .
  5. .       678
  6. .       678
  7. .       678
  8. .       678
  9. end

. gen newvar = max(var1, var2) if missing(var1, var2)

. l

     +----------------------+
     | var1   var2   newvar |
     |----------------------|
  1. |  345      .      345 |
  2. |  345      .      345 |
  3. |  345      .      345 |
  4. |  345      .      345 |
  5. |    .    678      678 |
     |----------------------|
  6. |    .    678      678 |
  7. |    .    678      678 |
  8. |    .    678      678 |
     +----------------------+

It should not change the value of -var1-. If that happens, your copy of Stata is corrupted.

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

Lucie Vlach

I need to create a new variable that will copy data from other variables (2 or more) and combine them into the new one. The existing vars will only have a number or missing value.
I found something similar on this list, and I tried:

gen newvar = max(var1, var2) if missing(var1, var2)

But it's changing the value of var1.
I would like to see the newvar look like this:

SAMPLE DATA:
var1  var 2   newvar
345    .        345
345    .        345
345    .        345
345    .        345
.       678     678
.       678     678
.       678     678
.       678     678
ETC
(I use Stata/IC 11.2)


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