change variable attributes by its own mean?

[ishak celik]

Hei, I have a variable that has "(1) Strongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree (99) I don't know"...... I would like to change 99 with the variable's own mean. how is the formula for achieving this? thank you!

[Clyde Schechter]

summ var, meanonly
replace var = `r(mean)' if var == 99

[William Lisowski]

Building on Clyde's code, I think you want

summ var if var != 99, meanonly
replace var = `r(mean)' if var == 99

although I would be more likely to do the following

mvdecode var, mv(99)
clonevar var_m = var
summ var_m, meanonly
replace var_m = `r(mean)' if missing(var_m)

I start by replacing the "don't know" with a Stata missing value, precisely to avoid accidentally using "99" in a calculation. Then, instead of changing that variable, I create a new variable with the mean substituted for the missing values. You now have your original variable, and the variable with the mean substituted. Each will be useful in different circumstances.

[ishak celik]

Thank you all !