MISSING Subcommand (MULT RESPONSE command)

MISSING controls missing values. Its minimum specification is a single keyword.

  • By default, MULT RESPONSE deletes cases with missing values on a table-by-table basis for both individual variables and groups. In addition, values falling outside the specified range are not tabulated and are included in the missing category. Thus, specifying a range that excludes missing values is equivalent to the default missing-value treatment.
  • For a multiple-dichotomy group, a case is considered missing by default if none of the component variables contains the tabulating value for that case. The keyword MDGROUP overrides the default and specifies listwise deletion for multiple-dichotomy groups.
  • For a multiple-response group, a case is considered missing by default if none of the components has valid values falling within the tabulating range for that case. Thus, cases with missing or excluded values on some (but not all) of the components of a group are included in tabulations of the group variable. The keyword MRGROUP overrides the default and specifies listwise deletion for multiple-response groups.
  • You can use INCLUDE with MDGROUP, MRGROUP, or TABLE. The user-missing value is tabulated if it is included in the range specification.

TABLE. Exclude missing values on a table-by-table basis. Missing values are excluded on a table-by-table basis for both component variables and groups. This is the default if you omit the MISSING subcommand.

MDGROUP. Exclude missing values listwise for multiple-dichotomy groups. Cases with missing values for any component dichotomy variable are excluded from the tabulation of the multiple-dichotomy group.

MRGROUP. Exclude missing values listwise for multiple-response groups. Cases with missing values for any component variable are excluded from the tabulation of the multiple-response group.

INCLUDE. Include user-missing values. User-missing values are treated as valid values if they are included in the range specification on the GROUPS or VARIABLES subcommands.

Example

MULT RESPONSE  GROUPS=FINANCL 'FINANCIAL PROBLEMS MENTIONED'
   (FINPROB1 TO FINPROB3 (1,3))
   SOCIAL 'SOCIAL PROBLEMS MENTIONED'(SOCPROB1 TO SOCPROB4 (4,9))
   /VARIABLES=EDUC (1,3)
   /TABLES=EDUC BY FINANCL SOCIAL
   /MISSING=MRGROUP.
  • The MISSING subcommand indicates that a case will be excluded from counts in the first table if any of the variables in the group FINPROB1 to FINPROB3 has a missing value or a value outside the range 1 to 3. A case is excluded from the second table if any of the variables in the group SOCPROB1 to SOCPROB4 has a missing value or value outside the range 4 to 9.