Re: st: simple question

[Richard Williams <Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.edu>]

At 03:17 PM 6/2/2004 -0400, Suzy wrote:
> Hi, I have continuous variables that are coded 99999 or 77777 for unknown 
> or refused to answer. How do I handle this? I don't want to treat them as 
> missing, if possible.
> Thank you.
> Suzy
In case we are making this more complicated than what Suzy has in mind, 
I'll note that she may just want to say something like

recode v1 v2 (77777 = .a)(99999 = .b)

That will keep the MD codes distinct but still result in both being treated 
as missing.

As a sidelight, I can't say that I am real fond of Stata's way of handling 
MD.  I work with secondary data all the time, and you'll routinely see MD 
codes of 9, 99, etc.  I'm never seen another program or non-Stata data set 
that handles MD like Stata does.

Also, one weakness I've noticed in Stat/Transfer is that when you convert 
an SPSS file, all the MD values just get converted to . in Stata.  Hence, 
distinctions between "No answer" and "Not applicable" get lost.  Perhaps 
there is a simpler approach I am missing, but it seems like you would have 
to undefine the MD codes in SPSS, convert the file, and then recode the 
values to MD in Stata.  If there is a better way, or some option in 
Stat/Transfer I don't know about, I would like to hear it.


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Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
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