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.
-------------------------------------------
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
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