Suzy
You might want to consider -encode- instead of destring. Presumably you're
starting with string variables. Encode will create a new variable with
incrementing value in (I believe) alphabetical order of the original
variable, plus it will make a value label corresponding to the original
string. This is useful if you need to be able to relate the new variable
value back to the original string.
e.g.
.encode var1, gen(code1)
-JW
-----Original Message-----
From: Suzy [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 2:45 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: st: destringing values led to Stata recoding them as missing
Dear Statalisters;
I have seven variables of over 300,000 observations each. Within each
variable, I have over 2000 different values. These datapoints
represent specific codes - for example : (72200 = intervertebral disc
disorder). Within each of these seven variables, there are datapoints
(values) with dashes or alphabets (Ie: 4109- or V2389). The majority
of the values though, are purely numeric (23405). I used the destring
option so that I could analyze the data and Stata treated all those
datapoints that included dashes and alphabets as missing. Now there is a
period . where there used to be a value. I have two questions:
1. Will the restring option restore the datapoints?
2. How can I successfully "destring" these values so that I can include
them in my analysis?
Any help and/or specific code would be very helpful as I am only
marginally competent with Stata basics.
Thank you!
Suzy
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