Re: st: global macro syntax for recoding missing values

[daniel klein <klein.daniel.81@googlemail.com>]

"[...] but can't figure out how to write a macro that will basically
recode "." | "99" | "-999"  == "999". "

I think Nick clarified that a macro in Stata is not what it is in e.g.
SPSS. Also you do not want missing values to be represented by
(positive) numeric values, since these values will not be excluded in
your analyses and also might be valid answers in some varibales (see
below).

I think you already gave one possible answer in your question. Modify
the last part to read

recode varlist (99 -999 999 = .)

Also see -help recode-.

You should be careful however, not to -recode- values that do not
indicate missing values to system missing values. Think about the
value "999". This value might represent a missing value in a variable
containing respondent's age but might well be a valid answer
representing  respondent's monthly income.

Best
Daniel
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