drop one value from new var

[J McClure]

Hi,
I have a variables SA_times which has the number of times a person has
attempted suicide. It includes '0'. I want a new variable (HxSA_times)
that excludes the respondents with a value of '0' and thus counts the
number of suicide attempts only when there has been at least one
attempt.  I thought of this but I don't know what to set Compute
HxSA_times=  to.
Compute HxSA_times
If SA_Times GE 1  HxSA_times=SA_Times
If SA_Times=missing HxSA_number=missing
Execute.

Also tried with recode but can't figure out what to do with the '0'
values except set them to missing which they really aren't.
Thanks,
Jan

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[Maguin, Eugene]

Jan,

If you want a variable that is the 'number of suicide attempts given at
least one attempt', a value of 0 has to be missing. There's several
different ways to do that. Using recode,

Recode sa_times(0=sysmis)(else=copy) into hxsa_times.

It'd be better to recode 0 to a value and set that value to user missing.
You'll also need to reset any usermissing values defined for sa_times

Not using recode, it would be

If (sa_times ge 1) hxsa_times=sa_times.

Here, values of 0 and user missing are both going to go to sysmis, which you
may or may not want and which can be fixed--of course.

Or,

Compute hxsa_times=sa_times.
Missing values hxsa_times(0).

Usermissing values from sa_times go to sysmis for hxsa_times.


Gene Maguin


Hi,
I have a variables SA_times which has the number of times a person has
attempted suicide. It includes '0'. I want a new variable (HxSA_times)
that excludes the respondents with a value of '0' and thus counts the
number of suicide attempts only when there has been at least one
attempt.  I thought of this but I don't know what to set Compute
HxSA_times=  to.
Compute HxSA_times
If SA_Times GE 1  HxSA_times=SA_Times
If SA_Times=missing HxSA_number=missing
Execute.

Also tried with recode but can't figure out what to do with the '0'
values except set them to missing which they really aren't.
Thanks,
Jan

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[Richard Ristow]

At 03:23 PM 8/25/2010, J McClure wrote:

I have a variable SA_times which has the number of times a person has
attempted suicide. It includes '0'. I want a new variable (HxSA_times) that excludes the respondents with a value of '0' and thus counts the number of suicide attempts only when there has been at least one attempt. I can't figure out what to do with the '0' values except set them to missing which they really aren't.

Yes, they really are missing. In SPSS, 'missing' is a term of art; it means "exclude from analysis and from computation of new values". The analyst may have various reasons to mark data as 'missing'. One of those is 'didn't happen' or 'not applicable': whatever event's being studied didn't occur in that case, whether there's a value for the variable or not.

For what you want to do, the non-zero number of suicide attempts is indeed 'not applicable' for subjects who've never attempted.

I don't know what to set Compute HxSA_times=  to.
Compute HxSA_times
If SA_Times GE 1  HxSA_times=SA_Times
If SA_Times=missing HxSA_number=missing

That's nowhere near the right SPSS syntax; perhaps you mean it as pseudo-code. Here's an easy way (not tested), assuming that your present SA_Times variable has no user-specified missing values:

COMPUTE HxSA_times=SA_Times.
MISSING VALUES HxSA_times(0).

See the MISSING VALUES command, for the very useful ability to define 'user-missing' values.
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