Date:         Tue, 9 Mar 2010 17:11:12 +0100
Reply-To:     Marta García-Granero <mgarciagranero@gmail.com>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Marta García-Granero <mgarciagranero@gmail.com>
Subject:      Re: One String Variable into Many Binary Variables
In-Reply-To:  <201003091547.o29Bkqqh015402@malibu.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Joseph Schneider wrote:
> I have a string variable that I need to decompose into multiple binary
> variables.  The String Variable potentially has the following characters:
>
> Name A(comments) Name B (comments) Name C (comments)
>
> I need to create a data set that decomposes this into binary data ie
> create a variable called nameA, so for every case that contains Name A,
> this new variable will have a 1, and a 0, if name A is not present, so the
> new dataset will look like:
>
>
>                                                 nameA nameB   nameC
> Name A(comments) Name B (comments) Name C (comments)  1 1 1
> Name A(comments) Name B (comments)                   1       1       0
> Name A(comments)  Name C (comments)                  1 0 1
> Name A Name B                                          1 1 0
>
>
> So there is avaraible created for each potential name.
> Now, here is the fun part, the names are not always in that order, and
> they are not always followed by comments.  Any ideas?  Hand is out there
> are over 5000 cases.
>
>
Hi Joe:
This should work:

* Sample dataset *.
DATA LIST LIST/StringVar(A55).
BEGIN DATA
"Name A(comments) Name B (comments) Name C (comments)"
"Name A(comments) Name B (comments)"
"Name A(comments)  Name C (comments)"
"Name A Name B"
END DATA.

NUMERIC NameA NameB NameC (F8).
COMPUTE NameA=0.
COMPUTE NameB=0.
COMPUTE NameC=0.
IF (INDEX(StringVar,"Name A")>0) NameA = 1 .
IF (INDEX(StringVar,"Name B")>0) NameB = 1 .
IF (INDEX(StringVar,"Name C")>0) NameC = 1 .
LIST.

HTH,
Marta GG

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