Hello everyone,
I have data from a longitudinal study, with each T having its own data set. There is an identifier variable for each case, in order to merge the variables into one final dataset.
However, there are some items that have their data spread across all four datasets (e.g. people would provide their age only once, but it could have been at any of the T's). I now want to merge these variables together to form a single variable (e.g. "age"). Is there a way to do that during the initial merge process? I don't want to use recode for every single variable (age is not the only one).
If I were to use the recode-into-different-variable function, is there a "if case not empty" command to just copy the values?
Thanks in advance!
ıf you have same names with your variables in separate datas (ıdentifier variable) you can follow below steps
1.click data
2.click merge files
3.click add variables
4.click an external statistics data file (send your second file, third, etc....)
5.click continue
6.click match cases on key variables
7.click cases of sorted in order key variables
8. send your ıdentifier variable key varibles (ın your main data file)
9. click okey.
repeat above steps until you merge all your data. DONT use your original data sets. First copy all and performa all steps ın your copied data sets.
that is all.
I hope that helps, have a good work.
Thank you for your input, but using this method will not merge variables that have the same name.
Unless I am not seeing an option for this, it seems that I can either add cases for a variable with the same name, or add variables for cases with the same identifier. However, I cannot merge an empty cell from one variable with data from another variable for the same case.
While merging sets, I want to also combine these variables. Is there an easier solution than to recode every single variable (Wave x) into a new one (total) after merging? Also it would avoid having to rename all variables before I recode them.
Example in picture:
I looked at SPSS user guide, I am not sure but restructure data wizard, restructure Variables to Cases may solve your problem. Look Appendix user guide Page 113.
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