From: Mark Casazza

To: !SPSSX-L ; harding faulk

Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 9:24 PM

Subject: Re: CONVERTING STRING TO NUMERIC VARIABLES

First, you can recode string values into numeric values.

 

Technically, CIP codes (as used by NCES) are string values; although it is possible to construct them as numeric--I don't see a reason to.  However, CIP codes are formatted nn.nnnn, since you are recoding into 4-digit CIPs it appears that you are using the first four digits without a decimal.  Be careful with an implied decimal because if you don't pad zeros correctly you'll have a problem.  (I'm reading that 'XEA' and 'XEF' are education courses and 'PHE' is a parks management course.  Tell me if I'm wrong.)  Also, adding an explicit decimal differentiates CIP codes (nn.nnnn) from HEGIS codes (nnnn.nn) so there is no mistaking them.

 

If you didn't create the CIP variable with enough space, the "expanded" codes wouldn't fit and you could have a problem.  This could be what happened when you added additional courses to be recoded to the list (the CIP codes didn't fit).  Assuming that the variable "nucourse" is in the file sdmsu99.sav, try the following:

 

GET FILE=C:\CCAR99\SDMSU99.sav'.

EXECUTE.

NUMERIC cipcrs (N7).

RECODE nucourse('XEA'=13.0400)

               ('PHE'=31.0300)

               ('XEF'=13.1200)

       into cipcrs.

VARIABLE LABELS cipcrs 'cip course'.

EXECUTE.

 

The only change is that I defined the variable called "cipcrs" as N7 which will retain leading zeros where appropriate and will accept four decimal places with an explicit decimal, I also padded the trailing zeros.  (The N format is handy if you have a "numeric" variable with leading zeros and want to display them--it is numeric for mathematical purposes.) If this doesn't work, let me know.

 

FWIW, your second example won't work for two reasons.  "Convert" is only used to turn string representations of numeric values into "true" numeric values.  For example, a string '1' becomes a numeric 1.  And, secondly, I know your original file doesn't have a scratch variable named #nucourse, a) it's too long and b) scratch variables can't be saved--hence their name.

Mark Casazza
home: mvcasazza@earthlink.net
work: casazza@adelphi.edu

 

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything."
-Joseph Stalin

----- Original Message -----

From: harding faulk

Newsgroups: bit.listserv.spssx-l

To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 5:42 PM

Subject: CONVERTING STRING TO NUMERIC VARIABLES

I'm converting course names that are string variables into CIP codes that are numeric variables.  Initially, the Recode function worked perfectly.  Then I expanded the list of recodes.  Once this list was finished I got the following message: "A string variable cannot be recoded to a numeric value.  Consider the CONVERT or INTO options.  This command not executed."  I checked the an SPSS syntax manual, release 6.0  and revised the recode statement.  It's still not working.

 

Here is a truncated version of the script:

Get

File=C:\CCAR99\SDMSU99.sav'.

EXECUTE

RECODE

NUCOURSE('XEA'=1304) ('PHE'=3103) ('XEF'=1312) into cipcrs.

VARIABLE LABELS cipcrs'cip course'.

EXECUTE.

 

After the error message, I revised the script:

 

Get

File=C:\CCAR99\SDMSU99.sav'.

EXECUTE

RECODE

#NUCOURSE (CONVERT)

('XEA'=1304) ('PHE'=3103) ('XEF'=1312) into cipcrs.

VARIABLE LABELS cipcrs'cip course'.

EXECUTE.

 

This didn't work either.  SPSS didn't recognize "#NUCOURSE." What did I do wrong?