filling blank spaces for data in long format

[Mary Atieno]

My data are repeated measures in long format as shown below. Since this is the same participant, How do I populate row 1 and 3 of the variable Age with the same value as row 2 since this is the same participant?

id Time Age
ID1 T1 .
ID1 T2 23
ID1 T3 .

[Øyvind Snilsberg]

bys id (age): replace age = age[_n-1] if mi(age)

[Nick Cox]

I would expect age to change with time.... Are the times just days apart?

[Mary Atieno]

I would expect age to change with time.... Are the times just days apart?

Fair point, time 1 and 2 are days apart, time 3 is 3 months later

[Mary Atieno]

bys id (age): replace age = age[_n-1] if mi(age)

Thanks, but this results in 0 real changes

[Øyvind Snilsberg]

hmm... perhaps,

bys id (age): replace age = age[1]

also, consider using dataex to provide example dataset

[Nick Cox]

Is age numeric? May seem a stupid question, but I am puzzled why #2 does not work -- unless age is string.

[Mary Atieno]

hmm... perhaps,

bys id (age): replace age = age[1]

also, consider using dataex to provide example dataset

This now works, many thanks

[Mary Atieno]

Is age numeric? May seem a stupid question, but I am puzzled why #2 does not work -- unless age is string.

I have a similar problem. I would like to populate the fac_groups_sd but using the command below, I get the error message "weights not allowed". Please help
bys id2 (fac_groups_sd): replace fac_groups_sd = fac_groups_sd[1]
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input long id2 byte fac_groups_sd
1 1
1 .
1 .
1 .
1 .
1 .
2 1
2 .
2 .
2 .
2 .
2 .
3 .
4 1
4 .
4 .
4 .
4 .
4 .
4 .
5 2
5 .
5 .
5 .
5 .
6 4
6 .
6 .
6 .
6 .
6 .
7 4
7 .
7 .
7 .
7 .
7 .
8 1
8 .
8 .
8 .
8 .
8 .
9 1
9 .
10 1
10 .
10 .
10 .
10 .
10 .
10 .
11 1
11 .
11 .
11 .
11 .
11 .
11 .
12 1
13 1
14 3
14 .
14 .
14 .
14 .
14 .
15 1
15 .
15 .
15 .
15 .
15 .
16 1
16 .
16 .
16 .
16 .
16 .
17 2
17 .
17 .
17 .
17 .
17 .
18 2
18 .
18 .
18 .
18 .
18 .
19 2
19 .
19 .
19 .
19 .
19 .
20 5
20 .
20 .
end
label values id2 id2
label def id2 1 "MHGAP001", modify
label def id2 2 "MHGAP002", modify
label def id2 3 "MHGAP003", modify
label def id2 4 "MHGAP004", modify
label def id2 5 "MHGAP005", modify
label def id2 6 "MHGAP006", modify
label def id2 7 "MHGAP007", modify
label def id2 8 "MHGAP008", modify
label def id2 9 "MHGAP009", modify
label def id2 10 "MHGAP010", modify
label def id2 11 "MHGAP011", modify
label def id2 12 "MHGAP012", modify
label def id2 13 "MHGAP013", modify
label def id2 14 "MHGAP014", modify
label def id2 15 "MHGAP015", modify
label def id2 16 "MHGAP016", modify
label def id2 17 "MHGAP017", modify
label def id2 18 "MHGAP018", modify
label def id2 19 "MHGAP019", modify
label def id2 20 "MHGAP020", modify
[/CODE]

[Rich Goldstein]

the code you show works for me on the data example provided:

 bys id2 (fac_groups_sd): replace fac_groups_sd = fac_groups_sd[1]
(80 real changes made)

so, first try on your data example - if it works on the example but not on the full data then your example is not representative and you need look for where in your full data there are differences from what is in the example