Date:         Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:34:09 -0700
Reply-To:     nfayed13@HOTMAIL.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         nfayed13@HOTMAIL.COM
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      combining different variables into one
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hello:

I am new to SPSS syntax and I've searched for the answer to my
question in the manual but I can't seem to find the solution to my
problem. If it is there I apologize.

I am performing a secondary analysis on a database I did not create
and I wish to collapse eight variables into three. The eight variables
represent different levels of education, so in EDU 1 through to EDU8,
if a person attained that level of education there is a 1, otherwise
there is a missing variable. It looks something like this:

EDU1   EDU2   EDU3  EDU4  EDU5   EDU6   EDU7  EDU8
            1           1
1
                                 1
            1
                                 1              1

                                                                                1

...and so on for about 400 cases. I wish to collapse EDU 1 & 3
together,
2, 4, 5 & 7 together, and 6 & 8 together. What should I do?

Thanks in advance,

Nora