[Lindsey Chesus]

Hello all, 

I have data that goes as follows:

“if you did____, fill out section A. if not, fill out section B”

For those who filled out section A, there is a lot of empty spaces in the SPSS spreadsheet in the columns for section B answers, and the same applies for section B and section A answers. Would it be best practice to use 99 for the missing values? It’s not that they chose not to fill it out, it didn’t apply to them. In the answer options, there is in fact a “Not Applicable” choice. Would it be better to use 99 for the missing variables, or use the value for N/A? 

[Maria Anna Szymczak]

It depends on the stage you are. If you are already coding 99 will have an impact on analysis. I would leave it blank

[Natalie Sappleton]

You can create as many discrete values for missing variables as you want. If you are already using 99 for the N/A variables, just create another for th missing variables. Like 999 or 9999 or whatever you wish!

[Lindsey Chesus]

Would it make a difference to add an additional missing variable versus just leaving it blank? It comes up as missing regardless. 

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