how to replace missing value by using the information in previous or following year?

[Aisah Aisah]

I am dealing with panel data of 140,000 firms for period 2010-2015. I found the identity of some firms (e.g. industrial code) are missing in particular year. I would like to replace missing identity by the information from the previous year or from the following year. I did the following command:

list firmcode if indcode==.

from this command, I can get list of firmcode whose industrial code is missing. I got more than 100 firms. Then, in order to check and edit I did the following command:

edit year firmcode indcode if firmcode==44|firmcode==45|firmcode==46

I need to repeat the second command many times until I finish editing more than 100 firms.

If you have a more efficient command, would you please share with me?

I have to check and edit the missing value of other variables too with the same procedure. I will appreciate your help.

Best regard,
Aisah

[Nick Cox]

This sounds pertinent

FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Replacing missing values

1/12 How can I replace missing values with previous or
following nonmissing values or within sequences?

https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/d...issing-values/

[Aisah Aisah]

Thank you very much for your prompt response. The explanation is very helpful.