Mike, I think I know where you're coming from. We often have surveys/interviews that are entered into an Access database. We then import the tables into SPSS. Where you choose to "clean" the data is a matter of preference, I generally prefer to do my data cleaning in SPSS, a colleague does her data cleaning in Access using queries. I can't say which is more efficient, probably depends on the kind of changes you are making to the data. If you are cleaning data in Access through queries, once you have the data in the format you want you could import the query into SPSS or use a Make Table query to create a new table with "correct" values. This doesn't really answer your question but I don't think there is a preferred method, probably depends a lot on how proficient you are with Access, SPSS or in your case SAS.
Ed Tesiny [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of takeadoe > Sent: Monday, April 17, 2006 10:07 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ms_access] Back to the basics... > > Folks, > > I'm just now beginning to use Access. To date, I've managed hundreds > of thousands of records in SAS, but would like to expand my software > horizon. I've read some and sat throught some classes, but one of > things that I can't seem to get my head wrapped around is this: if > you're given a large table that has missing and incomplete > records and > you want to clean that data up, (replace missing dates using the > previous record and randomly assign records a value based on a number > of criteria for example), do you actually modify the original table or > simpy create queries that create "temporary" tables that contain the > new and improved records? > > I know that in SAS, you may have several data steps and several > temporary data sets, but when you get the data like you want it, you > create a permanent SAS data set that is stored on your computer or a > server. In the end, your raw data remains in tact and you also have a > cleaned copy of that data for subsequent analyses. All of the > intermediate data sets are gone when you exit SAS. Perhaps > queries in > Access can be viewed as intermediate data steps. And I suppose that if > you wanted, you could create a permanent copy of the cleaned > table once > you got the data just the way you wanted it. Does this make any sense > at all? > > Mike > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ms_access/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
