Greetings List,

I have a new data set in which the subjects are tested twice (in 2004 and 2005) on a series of variables. Year is a variable, so each subject is represented as two cases, once for 2004 and again for 2005. Before I go any further, I have discovered a problem with subject identification. In the raw data set, subjects are identified by first name only (they are not humans) as a string variable, and also by location of the testing (nine different sites) as a coded nominal variable (I coded these when I received the data). However, I just discovered that because there are several hundred subjects, some of the names are duplicates. For example, there is an "Abby" at Site 1 and another "Abby" at Site 3. Is there a way that SPSS can identify each individual subject for me and assign a new ID number, without mistaking one subject with the same name for another at a different site? I have done this before when each case represented a subject, but this is a bit more complicated as there are two cases per subject and nine sites, each with subjects having names that are the same as some at other sites. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Linda Case

Linda P. Case AutumnGold Consulting www.autumngoldconsulting.com (217) 586-4864 lcase@autumngoldconsulting.com