dropping multiple missing varibles

[Fahmida Huq]

Hello,

I need to drop rows in a dataset, if all of the 10 variables have missing values at the same time. I am using the following command, but it is saying that (0 observations deleted), which should not be the case. The command is-
drop if mi( bqarel & bqbwheez & bqbwheezatt & bqbslpwheez & bqbtlkwheez & bqbasth & bqbasthtx & bqbchwhex & bqbdrconi & bqbnose)

Can someone please help me in this regard? Thanks.

Fahmida

[Jay Westreich]

You may need to have mi() for each variable:

drop if missing(bqarel) & mi(bqbwheez)

and so on

[Rich Goldstein]

or you can use -egen- with the "rowmiss(varlist)" option; see

help egen

[Nick Cox]

Your question is about dropping observations (rows for those with spreadsheet cravings), not variables (columns ditto)

Rich is right in #3 but Jay is not quite right in #2 as

 
 drop if missing(bqarel, bqbwheez)

is another way to do it.

Using the operator & is legal here but wrong for your purpose. Logical expressions evaluate to 0 if false and 1 if true and neither 0 nor 1 is missing.

. di 23 & .
1

. di missing(1)
0

. di missing(23 & .)
0

See also missings, dropobs as introduced in https://www.statalist.org/forums/for...aging-missings

The search command below gives a clickable link for downloading program files.

. search dm0085_1, sj entry

Search of official help files, FAQs, Examples, SJs, and STBs

SJ-17-3 dm0085_1  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Software update for missings
        (help missings if installed)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  N. J. Cox
        Q3/17   SJ 17(3):779
        identify() and sort options have been added

[Fahmida Huq]

Thanks