Question : Stata uses one or more large integers as missing value and labels these as .a .b etc.
Should we export missing values as the original value, e.g. 999 and loosing stata missing definition or use .a etc?
Jens Lauritsen Epidata.dk
Den 23. oktober 2017 16.42.57 CEST, EpiData development and support epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca skrev:
Dear team members, I had entered data in an .epx file created using EpiData Manager v4.2.0.0 with jumps set for certain variables using the last defined and second last defined missing values. A unique identifier was also created for each record by combining two integer fields. On importing the data to stata for analysis, the following issues have been noted:
- The unique id field remains empty in the stata file
- Wherever, missing values were indicated in the .epx file, they
appear as large random numbers in the stata file and not as the actual value that was entered. For example, age entered as 999 (missing) in the .epx file shows up as "32740" in the stata file. This happens only when the "missing" box is ticked while assigning value labels for categorical or continuous variables.
This issue has been noted in the previous versions of epidata manager as well as while exporting to newer versions of stata and SPSS.
I have attached the sample .epx file and the .dta file for your reference.
Thanks and Regards
Dr. Divya Nair