1. Home
  2. SVMERGE procedure

SVMERGE procedure

Merges strata prior to survey analysis (S.D. Langton).

Options

PRINT = string token Controls printed output (summary, intable, outtable, twowaytable); default summ
OLDFACTOR = factor Factor defining the original strata
NEWFACTOR = factor Factor to save the merged strata

Parameters

MERGELABELS = texts Labels of strata to merge
NEWLABEL = texts Label for merged stratum

Description

In survey analysis it is often necessary to combine a number of strata for analysis, for example where less data are collected than anticipated. SVMERGE does this, identifying strata using their labels, avoiding the errors that can arise when using other methods, such as the NEWLEVELS function.

The original stratum factor is specified using the OLDFACTOR option, and the corresponding new factor is saved using the NEWFACTOR option. The MERGELABELS parameter supplies a text containing the two or more stratum labels to merge from the OLDFACTOR. The NEWLABEL parameter supplies the name of the merged stratum for the NEWFACTOR. The NEWLABEL can be set to an existing label of OLDFACTOR, but only if it is also included in the list of MERGELABELS.

Printed output is controlled by the PRINT option, using the following settings:

    summary summary of merges,
    intable table of counts for original factor,
    outtable table of counts for merged factor, and
    twoway two-way table of counts for original and merged factors.

By default, the summary is printed.

Options: PRINT, OLDFACTOR, NEWFACTOR.

Parameters: MERGELABELS, NEWLABEL.

Method

SVMERGE uses the FACMERGE procedure.

Action with RESTRICT

The merging process ignores any restrictions but, when this has been completed, any restriction on OLDFACTOR is applied to NEWFACTOR.

See also

Procedures: SVSTRATIFIED, SVTABULATE, FACMERGE.

Commands for: Survey analysis.

Example

CAPTION 'SVMERGE example'; STYLE=meta
SPLOAD  [PRINT=*] '%GENDIR%/Data/fbs_England_merged.gsh'
" a single merge "
TEXT    [VALUES='Part-time','Small'] oldlab
TEXT    [VALUES='Part-time/small'] newlab
SVMERGE [PRINT=summary,twoway; OLDFACTOR=farmsize; NEWFACTOR=size2]\
        MERGELABELS=oldlab; NEWLABEL=newlab
" two simultaneous merges "
TEXT    [VALUES='Large','Very large'] oldlab2
TEXT    [VALUES='(Very) large'] newlab2
SVMERGE [PRINT=summary, twoway; OLDFACTOR=farmsize; NEWFACTOR=size3]\
        MERGELABELS=oldlab,oldlab2; NEWLABEL=newlab,newlab2
Updated on March 5, 2019

Was this article helpful?