I wrote too quickly. What I wrote was right, but not enough. At 01:19 PM5/12/2008, Keval Khichadia wrote:

>[In the following syntax] I get the correct value (1) for LowIncome >but there are several cases when there are values for num_in_family >and Fisap_Income where the value should be 0 but I am getting $sysmis

The code I sent, ... else if SYSMIS(num_in_family) | SYSMIS(Fisap_Income). compute LowIncome = $sysmis. else. compute LowIncome = 0. end if.

won't be reached if either variable is missing, because the first test,

>do if num_in_family = 1 & Fisap_Income <= 19600.

will return 'missing' in that case, and the rest of the DO IF will be skipped.

You need something like this, checking for missing values at the *beginning* of the DO IF:

MISSING VALUES LowIncome(9). DO IF SYSMIS(num_in_family) | SYSMIS(Fisap_Income). . compute LowIncome = 9. else if num_in_family = 2 & Fisap_Income <= 26400. . compute LowIncome = 1. ... else. . compute LowIncome = 0. end if.

Note that 9 is defined as a user-missing value for "LowIncome", and that, not SYSMIS, is the value it's given if you have missing data. Art Kendall's right about this one.

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