Defining age groups

[Bob Schacht-3]

OK, here's the kludgy way to do it:

STRING  AgeGroup (A4).
IF  (AGEATAPP<16) AgeGroup='1'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=27) AgeGroup='4'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=14.00 AND AGEATAPP<22) AgeGroup='2'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=22.00 AND AGEATAPP<27) AgeGroup='3'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.

However, I'd like to do the same thing more efficiently, with fewer lines
of code. Will this work better to achieve the same results?
STRING  AgeGroup (A4).
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
COMPUTE AgeGroup = '4'.
DO IF  (AGEATAPP<27)
Compute AgeGroup='3'.
ELSE IF  (AGEATAPP<22)
Compute AgeGroup='2'.
ELSE IF  (AGEATAPP<16)
Compute AgeGroup='1'.
END IF .

Is there an even better way?

Thanks,
Bob Schacht

Robert M. Schacht, Ph.D. <[hidden email]>
Pacific Basin Rehabilitation Research & Training Center
1268 Young Street, Suite #204
Research Center, University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96814

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[Art Kendall]

Why do you use 4 characters (A4) for agegroup rather than (a1)?
If you want Agegroup to be numeric NUMERIC agegroup (f1) and drop the single quotes.

Open a new instance of SPSS. Copy the syntax below into a syntax window.  Run it.
Is this what you want?  Assumed 14 was a typo.

DATA LIST list/id (f2) ageatapp(f2).
BEGIN DATA
1 15
2 16
3 21
4 22
5 26
6 27
7 28
8 xx
end data.
STRING  AgeGroup (A4).
RECODE ageatapp
 (lo thru 15.99 = '1')
 (16 thru 21.99 = '2')
 (22 thru 26.99 = '3')
 (27 thru hi    = '4')
 (else          = '5') into agegroup.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
missing values agegroup ('5').
list.

Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants

Bob Schacht wrote:

OK, here's the kludgy way to do it:

STRING  AgeGroup (A4).
IF  (AGEATAPP<16) AgeGroup='1'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=27) AgeGroup='4'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=14.00 AND AGEATAPP<22) AgeGroup='2'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=22.00 AND AGEATAPP<27) AgeGroup='3'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.

However, I'd like to do the same thing more efficiently, with fewer lines
of code. Will this work better to achieve the same results?
STRING  AgeGroup (A4).
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
COMPUTE AgeGroup = '4'.
DO IF  (AGEATAPP<27)
Compute AgeGroup='3'.
ELSE IF  (AGEATAPP<22)
Compute AgeGroup='2'.
ELSE IF  (AGEATAPP<16)
Compute AgeGroup='1'.
END IF .

Is there an even better way?

Thanks,
Bob Schacht

Robert M. Schacht, Ph.D. [hidden email]
Pacific Basin Rehabilitation Research & Training Center
1268 Young Street, Suite #204
Research Center, University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96814

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[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
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[Garry Gelade]

Bob

Neither will work as is.  In your first code snippet, you have an overlap
between age groups 1 nad 2. A 15 year old gets assigned to group 1, then
further down is re-assigned to group 2.

In your second snippet,remember that once a condition is met, subsequent
conditions are not tested therefore the first condition will assign anyone
under 27 to aage group 3, and the subsequent elseif commands will not be
executed.  If you invert the order (start with ageatapp <16), it would work.



Garry Gelade
Business Analytic Ltd.

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Bob
Schacht
Sent: 14 February 2009 00:45
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Defining age groups

OK, here's the kludgy way to do it:

STRING  AgeGroup (A4).
IF  (AGEATAPP<16) AgeGroup='1'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=27) AgeGroup='4'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=14.00 AND AGEATAPP<22) AgeGroup='2'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.
IF  (AGEATAPP>=22.00 AND AGEATAPP<27) AgeGroup='3'.
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
EXECUTE.

However, I'd like to do the same thing more efficiently, with fewer lines of
code. Will this work better to achieve the same results?
STRING  AgeGroup (A4).
VARIABLE LABELS  AgeGroup 'Age Group'.
COMPUTE AgeGroup = '4'.
DO IF  (AGEATAPP<27)
Compute AgeGroup='3'.
ELSE IF  (AGEATAPP<22)
Compute AgeGroup='2'.
ELSE IF  (AGEATAPP<16)
Compute AgeGroup='1'.
END IF .

Is there an even better way?

Thanks,
Bob Schacht

Robert M. Schacht, Ph.D. <[hidden email]> Pacific Basin Rehabilitation
Research & Training Center
1268 Young Street, Suite #204
Research Center, University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96814

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command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of
commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

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