Date:         Thu, 31 Jul 2003 11:11:41 -0500
Reply-To:     Michael Granaas <mgranaas@usd.edu>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Michael Granaas <mgranaas@usd.edu>
Subject:      converting several items into a single item
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

For myself I would favor clearer subject lines.  Right now I delete most
messages from the list without reading.  They don't interest me right
now, but the small effort of deleting unread messages about date
conversions is a small price to pay for the knowledge that should I ever
need to know about date conversions the information will be out there
somewhere.

On that theme--converting several items into a single item has come
across my desk.  The folks who entered the data had questions with
several possible responses (e.g., your primary training is...).  They
then created a separate variable for each possible response.  So if
there were 8 possible responses they created 8 variables.  These
variables are coded as endorsed (1) or not-endorsed (system missing).
As far as I can tell only one of the 8 items is endorsed for any
individual and the remaining 7 are missing.

I've started recoding these into a single varible using a long series of
IF statements:

IF v8a = 1  new8 = 1.
If v8b = 1 new8 = 2.
IF v8c = 1 new8 = 3.

and so on.

Is there a command that  can accomplish the same thing?

Michael

****************************************************
Michael Granaas                 mgranaas@usd.edu
Assoc. Prof.                    Phone: 605 677 5295
Dept. of Psychology             FAX:  605 677 3195
University of South Dakota
414 E. Clark St.
Vermillion, SD 57069
*****************************************************

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paparodopoulos, Nikos" <NPaparodopoulos@ing.gr>
Date: Thursday, July 31, 2003 2:46 am
Subject: Re: The purpose of this list. . .

> I agree with Nels that List is used sometimes in a not appropriate
> mannerbut I would like to ask him to reconsider unsubscribing from
> the List since
> I believe that advanced SPSS users are key for the List. I agree
> that List
> sould not be misused for manual-trivial questions but we should
> keep in mind
> that progress in a field is triggered quite often from "simple"
> questions.The interaction between SPSS users, irrespective of
> their level (expert,
> regular user, beginner), at the end of the day only positive
> balance will
> generate for everybody.
>
> Best regards
>
> Nikos Paparodopoulos
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nels Tomlinson [mailto:nels_tomlinson@labor.state.ak.us]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 10:25 PM
> To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: The purpose of this list. . .
>
>
> Guess I didn't make myself clear enough. The problem I see isn't
> that the
> questioners are ignorant; I was certainly ignorant the first few
> weeks I was
> using SPSS.  The problem is that I see, over and over, people
> asking us to
> read the manual to them.  Worse yet, some don't even want to hear
> about the
> manual: they want us to simply give them a solution.
>
> When I was teaching (economics and calculus), I found that the
> students who
> brought me homework and asked: ``How do I do this one?'' didn't
> gain much
> from my answers.  The ones who'd tried the problems and asked:
> ``Why doesn't
> this way work?'' gained far more.  The ones who never asked
> questions were
> even worse off, of course!  I don't want to intimidate, or keep
> anyone from
> asking questions, but some preparation before posting will make
> questionsmore rewarding for all.
>
> Too many of the questions seem to be on the order of ``do my
> homework for
> me, please''.  A few have been so blatant that I found them a bit
> offensive.There was one fellow (I think it was on this list) who
> claimed to be a
> consultant hired to do some project, and asked the list how to do
> the work
> he had contracted to do.  He didn't offer to share his fee, either!
>
> I joined this list because I thought it would let me see a lot of
> usefulquestions and answers, and let me learn from the mistakes of
> others.  What
> I've found is that the signal-to-noise ratio is very bad, so that I'm
> getting loads of emails and not very much useful information.
> I've been
> considering unsubscribing from the list because of the huge volume
> of emails
> from it which I delete unread.  That's why I thought that Betty's
> commentswere timely.
>
> I mentioned that the list's welcome message should contain
> pointers to a FAQ
> and some other resources.  I also think that it would help if we
> would all
> point to specific pages in the manual (usually with some
> clarification,helpful hints or additional information) when
> answering newbies' questions
> about SPSS.  That would help them learn to find their own answers
> for the
> stuff that they should soon learn to see as simple.
>
> I'm sure that the people who are answering questions on this list are
> generally busier than the ones who are trying to economize their
> time, at
> our expense, by not  reading the manual and experimenting.  We
> don't want to
> carry this as far as the OpenBSD mailing lists have, but I do
> think it's
> appropriate to economize our time (both active answerers and
> lurkers time)
> by gently, politely helping people to learn, and gently, politely,
> not spoon
> feeding them.
>
> The other problem I mentioned, of statistical ignorance, is a much
> deeperand more widespread problem.  The space shuttle Challenger
> was launched on a
> cold morning, and crashed, in part because the people (all experts
> in their
> fields) who analyzed o-ring failure data had no statistical
> training.  I
> don't know of any implement-able solution to this problem, but I
> am sure
> that GUI stats packages exacerbate it.
>
> Nels
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On
> Behalf Of
> Michael Solorza
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 9:26 AM
> To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: The purpose of this list. . .
>
>
> The eternal debate that surrounds ANY listserv community. .. what is
> appropriate to post and what isn't?  I understand where the author
> of the
> following is coming from. . . Unfortunately, if taken the wrong
> way, this
> type of post paints the picture that this list is designed only
> for the
> "expert" users of SPSS and only for the "experts" in statistics. .
> . And
> the rest of us should just sit back, be quiet,  and watch the
> adults do
> their business. . .
>
> Sorry, but that's what academic journals are for.  Listservs like
> this were
> created for -- and should continue to serve -- the "average" user
> that may
> not be an elite user of SPSS (whatever that means).   Sniffing our
> noses at
> people -- like me -- who use GUI a majority of the time vs. scripting
> doesn't do any good. ..
>
> Elitist attitudes like this only continue to deepen the chasm that
> existsbetween those people who truly are experts in their field
> and those of us
> who could stand to learn a thing or two by just being around folks
> likethis. . . I've always had the humble opinion that knowledge
> should be
> shared, not hoarded by the few so they could lord over the "less"
> deserving. . . My 2 cents.
>
> >Thanks for saying what needed to be said.  Too many questions
> here could
> >have been solved by a glance at the manual.  Too many more show
> that GUI
> >statistics packages provide the dangerously wrong illusion that
> anyone can
> >correctly analyze data, no matter how little they know.
>
>
>
> ***************************
> Michael A. Solorza
> Graduate Housing Analyst
> UC Irvine
> 500 Housing Administrative Services
> Irvine, CA 92697-3250
>
> (949) 824-2490  (office)
> (949) 824- 4181 (fax)
> ****************************
>