Jens,
Thank you very much for your help. From reading the help file, I didn't realize that "JUMPS RESET 9" would actually fill in each variable with the full length. That actually works better for me. Is there anyway that I can reset only my numeric values to 9? I would prefer to keep my char variables clear when they're skipped. I tried writing:
IF (Q14=55) THEN CLEAR Q15B CLEAR Q16B ENDIF
I thought this might overwrite the "JUMPS RESET" for those variables, but it didn't work that way. Is there any other way to do this, aside from writing a bit of code (Q15A=99, CLEAR Q15B, etc...) for each variable between Q14 and ENDNOTE1?
Also, regarding the message "Definition of values (comment legal, missingvalue, range ...)":
In my program, I have code like in your example:
v1 mustenter missingvalue 99 comment legal use label_q01 after entry if (v1 <> 8) and (v1 <> 14) and (v1 <> 21) and (v1 <> 99) then help "Wrong value entered" goto v1 endif end end
The reason I did this is because I wanted the users to be able to override the legal values if they felt it was necessary to type in something other than 8, 14, 21, or 99 -- sometimes valid codes are added to our variables. Yet I wanted the users to still get a warning if they didn't use one of the legal values. I also had to add "range -9 99" in order for this to work with "comment legal use". As far as I understand, users cannot override legal values or range values. Please correct me if I am wrong. As a result, I stay away from using legal and range in my EpiData programs, unless I want to have value labels. While the after entry block above is seemingly unnecessary, it at least allows the user to click in the next appropriate field with their mouse and force the program to accept the value.
Thank you,
Katie Thornton Programmer Institute for Research on Poverty