Date:         Wed, 17 Mar 2004 13:56:12 EST
Reply-To:     PGall9898@AOL.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Philip Gallagher <PGall9898@AOL.COM>
Subject:      RE : proc phreg: type of variable is character with 4 values,
              how to construct d
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

Roger Lustig replied to  Pascale Beaupré on the subject of: 
"proc phreg: type of variable is character with 4 values,  how to 
construct dummies?" with sound advice on good code writing
practice for constructing dummy variables.  Surely by simple
oversight (since none of us who have been there will ever forget
the rude lessons we have learned when unpleasant results have
occurred and been discovered by our colleagues) Roger omitted
one especially good piece of advice when recoding variables:

After creating  a new variable via a recoding operation it is good
practice to run a crosstabulation (or other appropriate summary) of
the original and new variable to ensure that the code did in all cases
what was intended.

I am sure both Roger and Pascale are fully aware of this practice.
I write this only because I hope that beginners will copy out Roger's
suggestions, and that they will add the stricture to check their work
to his ideas.

Phil Gallagher
Nantucket