Adding missing values in a varlist

[Arman Khodatars]

Hi,

In my data set answers below zero each show a different type of missing value (e.g. not answered or not asked etc. from -1 to -10) and I want to replace them all with missing values.

I have made a global list named alist like this:

global alist Date Age Education Employment1 Employment2 Sex Stress1 Stress2 ///
JobControl1 JobControl2 JobControl3 JobDemand1 JobDemand2 JobDemand3 ///
Depression1 Depression2 Depression3 Depression4 Depression5 SocialSupport1 ///
SocialSupport2 SocialSupport3 SocialSupport4 SocialSupport5 SocialSupport6 ///
SocialSupport7 SocialSupport8 SocialSupport9 SocialSupport10

and then called them to be replaced like this:

foreach var of $alist {replace `var' =. if (`var'<=0)}

but I am getting this error that tell me :

program error: code follows on the same line as open brace

can any one tell me what should I change? I've been googling but could not find any way to do it.

Many thanks and appreciation.

[Rich Goldstein]

you can't, as Stata is telling, you place all that on one line; try this:

foreach var of $alist {
replace `var' =. if (`var'<=0)
}

in general, using globals, rather than locals, is not a good idea as discussed many time in this forum

note that there is no reason for a loop here anyway; see

help mvdecode

[Arman Khodatars]

Thanks a lot but when I put it as you suggested it says invalid syntax:

foreach var of $alist {
2. replace `var' =. if (`var'<=0)
3. }
invalid syntax
r(198);

and

mvdecode

is about changing missing values to numeric right? how can it be used to change numeric to missing values?

[Nick Cox]

Typos there.

You need

foreach var of var $alist {

or

foreach var of global alist {

Looking at the help for foreach makes that clear.

Further, Rich did mean that mvdecode might help: it's all in the same help file.