Na�v� -- or even na�ve -- or not, there is at least
one answer not yet given. The -max()- function and
-egen, rowmax()- will both yield the single non-missing
value whenever just one value is non-missing and the others
are all missing (of whatever flavour) and all are numeric.
Nick
[email protected]
Michael Blasnik
> It will be easy to do in Stata (no cutting or pasting) but
> the best answer
> may depend on what these variables are named, whether they
> are string or
> numeric, and whether the ones to ignore contain missing
> values or something
> else. Here are some examples:
>
> * strings, all blank but one, easy to just concatenate:
> gen mystring=string1+string2+string3+string4
>
> * numeric var, all missing but one
> gen mynumvar=.
> foreach var of varlist numvar1 numvar2 numvar3 {
> replace mynumvar=`var' if !missing(`var')
> }
[email protected]
> > I have a single variable that was erroneously split into several
> > variables, and
> > I need to re-merge many variables into a single variable.
> >
> > Within any single observation, just 1 of the variables to
> be merged has
> > data in
> > it, and I need to get the data from all of the variables
> into a single
> > variable.
> >
> > Short of lots of cutting and pasting, does anybody know
> exactly how to do
> > this?
> >
> > Apologies if this is a na�v� question; I'm a Stata novice.
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