| How To Combine Variables |
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Sometimes you will want to simplify a variable by "combining" two or more of its values (e.g., for the variable "Race," you might have "white," "black," "asian," and "other"; and you may want to, say, combine the values of "asian" and "other" into a new category labeled "other-races"). First we must "Open" a data set file. For this tutorial, we will use "Born9.dat" in the Cen1990 folder. We then go to "Modify," and then to "Combine," as shown below.
Next the variable screen below will appear. This is where you must choose the variable you wish to modify. For this example we will use "Age."
As you can see below "Age" has several categories. Say we only want to deal with three age groups instead of the six below. We migh combine the age groups as follows: 15-34, 35-54, and 55+. To do this, we must first choose the categories being combined, so first we highlight both 15-24 and 25-34 and click "Select."
Next the screen will prompt you to label your new category, which we will call 15-34.
We then
repeat the process for the 35-54 and 55+ categories. If you
combine the three categories correctly the category window for "Age"
will look
like this:
Now you can plot charts or create crosstabulations using your new categories for "Age." This is not a permanent change. The changes to variable categories will reset by simply opening the "Born9.dat" data set again. So, if you mess up, simply reopen the file and try again.
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