Thanks to Gene for Help - Solved my problem

[[Ela Bonbevan]]

Thanks Gene for the flawless logic.  It helped me to create the following
block of syntax which has given me my new variable and transformed
the 'blanks' to missing.

String var3 (A8).
If (var2=999) var3=var1.

AUTORECODE
  VARIABLES=var3  /INTO var4
  /BLANK=MISSING.
Frequencies variables = var3 var4.

Have a great day!

Diane