--- Louis Boakye-Yiadom <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks. I was, however, hoping there is a way of
> knowing the actual (or kind of) modification mdade.
The way to document the modifications you make to a
data file is to make these modifications in a
do-file, and save the original data and the do-file,
and not the modified data. Whenever you need the
modified data, you first run the do-file (I often
call that do-file dataprep.do)
This is always a good idea, not only because that
way you keep a complete record of all changes you
made, but also because in a real data-analysis
project everybody makes mistakes during data-
preparation. If you keep the original data and the
do-file that made the modifications, than correcting
the mistake is often matter of seconds. If you did
not store the do-file, it is often a matter of days,
and if you did not store the original data, all is
lost.
-- Maarten
-----------------------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Department of Social Research Methodology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
visiting address:
Buitenveldertselaan 3 (Metropolitan), room Z434
+31 20 5986715
http://home.fsw.vu.nl/m.buis/
-----------------------------------------
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