Date:         Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:16:18 -0400
Reply-To:     Richard Ristow <wrristow@mindspring.com>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Richard Ristow <wrristow@mindspring.com>
Subject:      Re: Remove ID's with missing month end data
Comments: To: jimjohn <azam.khan@utoronto.ca>
Comments: cc: Gene Maguin <emaguin@buffalo.edu>,
          ViAnn Beadle <vab88011@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <18369687.post@talk.nabble.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Oh, dear.

At 04:08 PM 7/9/2008, jimjohn wrote:

>ok i just tried "compute laggegd = lag(ID). and here is the error I got:
>
>compute lagged = LAG(ID).
>
>>Error # 4309 in column 1024.  Text: (End of Command)
>>Invalid combination of data types in an assignment.

Right. And back Wed, 9 Jul 2008 (10:55:10 -0700) you asked, "Is there
any way to lag a string variable?", i.e. your ID.

And yes, Lag works fine with string variables. I think both Gene and
ViAnn Beadle have told you that.

The problem is that variable 'lagged' is *NOT* a string variable; so,
you get the "Invalid combination of data types."  A new variable is a
string variable only if it's declared on a "STRING" statement.

I don't see your stating how long 'ID' is. If it's 11 characters,
this will work:

STRING  lagged(A11).
compute lagged = LAG(ID).

And none of this has anything to do with file size.

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