st: Copying the contents of existing variables into a new variable

[Lucie Vlach <Lucie.Vlach@albertahealthservices.ca>]

Hello everyone!

I need to create a new variable that will copy data from other variables (2 or more) and combine them into the new one. The existing vars will only have a number or missing value.
I found something similar on this list, and I tried:

gen newvar = max(var1, var2) if missing(var1, var2)

But it’s changing the value of var1.
I would like to see the newvar look like this:

SAMPLE DATA:
var1  var 2   newvar
345    .        345
345    .        345
345    .        345
345    .        345
.       678     678
.       678     678
.       678     678
.       678     678
ETC
(I use Stata/IC 11.2)

I tried to find a solution for a while now, and I am stuck. Any help is much appreciated!
Thank you!
Lucie

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