recoding a missing date field

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

If I want to recode the system missing value of a date variable (blank field in data editor) to 999, why doesn't appear October 14,
1582 as the date? After all, 999 would mean  999 seconds after the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. Oct 14 1582 is at least a clearly recognizable odd date.

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

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[Jon K Peck]

The first of the SPSS date era is special.  Small integers are used for year and month numbers.

But the system missing value would be the same for dates as for other numeric variables.

HTH,
Jon Peck
SPSS, an IBM Company
[hidden email]
312-651-3435

From:	Albert-Jan Roskam <[hidden email]>
To:	[hidden email]
Date:	10/28/2009 03:56 AM
Subject:	[SPSSX-L] recoding a missing date field
Sent by:	"SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

---

If I want to recode the system missing value of a date variable (blank field in data editor) to 999, why doesn't appear October 14,
1582 as the date? After all, 999 would mean  999 seconds after the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. Oct 14 1582 is at least a clearly recognizable odd date.

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes, that way
when you do criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

=====================
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[Richard Ristow]

At 05:51 AM 10/28/2009, Albert-Jan Roskam wrote:

If I want to recode the system missing value of a date variable (blank field in data editor) to 999, why doesn't appear October 14, 1582 as the date?

At 08:53 AM 10/28/2009, Jon K Peck wrote:

The first of the SPSS date era is special.  Small integers are used for year and month numbers.

I'm not sure what that second sentence means - Jon, is that something about SPSS date representation that I don't know. But to clarify the first sentence: SPSS does not regard October 14, 1582 as a representable date. I think Richard Oliver may have told me why, once, but if so, I don't remember it.

NUMERIC DateTime (DATETIME17).
COMPUTE DateTime = Number.
LIST.

List
|-----------------------------|---------------------------|
|Output Created               |29-OCT-2009 15:57:35       |
|-----------------------------|---------------------------|
 Number          DateTime

>Warning # 1140
>The value to be output under one of the date formats is negative or has a
>date part of zero.  The result has been set to the system-missing value.

    999                 .
 87,399 15-OCT-1582 00:16

Number of cases read:  2    Number of cases listed:  2
=============================
APPENDIX: Test data, and code
=============================
NEW FILE.
INPUT PROGRAM.
.  NUMERIC Number(COMMA7).
.  COMPUTE Number = 999.
.  END CASE.
.  COMPUTE Number = 999 + TIME.DAYS(1).
.  END CASE.
END FILE.
END INPUT PROGRAM.

NUMERIC DateTime (DATETIME17).
COMPUTE DateTime = Number.
LIST.
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