User Guide

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Chapter 4
E
In the second row, select the cell for sex and select Female from the drop-down list.
Figure 4-11
Using variab
le labels to select values
Only de
fined values are listed, which helps to ensure that the data entered are in a
format that you expect.
Handli
ng Missing Data
Missin
g or invalid data are generally too common to ignore. Survey respondents may
refuse to answer certain questions, may not know the answer, or may answer in
an unexpected format. If you don’t take steps to filter or identify these data, your
analy
sis may not provide accurate results.
For numeric data, empty data fields or fields containing invalid entries are handled
by converting the fields to system missing, which is identifiable by a single period.