How can i set a missing value? E.g. VAR1 to VAR5 have either a value or are missing.(1 = Hello, else missing). I want to compute a new variable out of these:
Compute new = 0
IF VAR1 = 1 then new = 1
IF VAR2 = 1 then new = 2
IF VAR3 = 1 then new = 3
IF VAR4 = 1 then new = 4
IF VAR5 = 1 then new = 5.
But how can I handle the missings? Since compute needs a "=something" at the beginning all my missings are 0 now. How can I set all 0 values to missing? I tried IF new = 0 then missing. but this is not working.
There is the Missing- function and the missing keyword in SPSS. This works like this:
IF missing(VAR1) THEN new = $SYSMIS.
Missing is a function and figures out if the value for the case is system-missing (a dot) or a user defined missing value. If yes, the parter after the then is executed. In this case, I told SPSS to assign it a "system missing value", visible as a dot. If you want to use a custom missing value, like "6", you would have to include it in the IF-handling.
This would look like this:
MISSING VALUES VAR1 ().
IF VAR6 = 1 then new = 6.
MISSING VALUES VAR6 new(6).