Date:         Mon, 7 Jan 2008 23:52:11 -0500
Reply-To:     Richard Ristow <wrristow@mindspring.com>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Richard Ristow <wrristow@mindspring.com>
Subject:      Re: Merging 2 numeric variables to match another date variable
Comments: To: Manny Estrada <estradam@fiu.edu>
In-Reply-To:  <000a01c8517c$455ee2a0$d01ca7e0$@edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 05:25 PM 1/7/2008, Manny Estrada wrote:

>I have 2 datasets that I need to merge. But, I have a little issue.
>
>In dataset #1, I have a DATE variable (APR 2000) in one field.
>In dataset#2,  I have 2 separate NUMERIC variables (4),(2000) in two fields.
>
>What I need is to merge these numeric variables, and match the date variable.

"APR 2000" has to be a string variable. Assuming that's how you want
your month-year dates, something like this should work, though not
tested. It assumes that,
. The first dataset can be read as 'Dataset1', and the second as 'Dataset2'
. The string variable in the first dataset is 'Date'; the numeric
variables in the second dataset are 'Month' and 'Year'.

GET FILE=Dataset2.
STRING Date (A8).

*  Convert the numeric month into its three-letter  .
*  abbreviation. This is a roundabout calculation,  .
*  through an SPSS date value that is the first day .
*  of that month in the year 2000.                  .

NUMERIC #Month (DATE11).
COMPUTE #Month= DATE.MDY(Month,1,2000).
COMPUTE Date  = STRING(#Month,MONTH3).

*  Add the four-digit year to the field             .

COMPUTE Date  = CONCAT(RTRIM(Date),
                        ' '        ,
                        STRING(Year,F4)).

*  Now merge (I assume you mean adding cases), with .
*  only the string form of the date being kept.     .

*  (Add /BY, /RENAME, etc., as you need to.)       .

ADD FILES
   /FILE=Dataset1
   /FILE=*
   /DROP=Month Year.

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