How to recode the 50 US states into 2 groups

[Zhou, Liuning]

Dear all,

I am new to the list, and need your help with some simple task. I have a
dataset that includes the 50 US states listed in alphabetical order and
numbered 1 through 50. Now I'd like to recode this "State" variable into a
new variable with two categories, mid-Western and non mid-Western states.

Any idea on how to do this?

Thanks in advance!
Matt

[Hal 9000]

Something along these lines. Change the quoted values and labels as needed.

recode State ('CA', 'NV', = 1) ('MD' 'CT' = 2) into Region.
value labels Region 1 'West' 2 'East'.

[Zhou, Liuning]

Thanks for all your help. Really appreciate it!

Matt

[Julie Alig]

Matt,
The U.S. Census has defined standard definitions of the regions of the
U.S.

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf

hth,
Julie

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Zhou, Liuning
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 4:44 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: How to recode the 50 US states into 2 groups

Dear all,

I am new to the list, and need your help with some simple task. I have a
dataset that includes the 50 US states listed in alphabetical order and
numbered 1 through 50. Now I'd like to recode this "State" variable into
a
new variable with two categories, mid-Western and non mid-Western
states.

Any idea on how to do this?

Thanks in advance!
Matt