Recoding variables
In this section, we will discuss all of the different ways you can recode variables to turn them into a format you can use. Recoded variables, as mentioned when we talked about derived variables, are a kind of derived variable. Instead of the focus being on summarizing data, the idea is to create a direct translation of a variable into a different format. This is how you turn quantitative variables into qualitative variables and vice versa. Recoding can try to make data easier to understand, but it is most often used because a certain analysis requires data to be in a specific format to run.
Recoding numbers into categories
When it comes to creating a category based on a number, ranges are the most common approach. Effectively, you are saying if the value of X is between A and B, it falls into this group, and if X is between B and C, it falls into this other group. Where specifically you make the cut-offs to set the ranges can get very complicated and is a...
