# Can anyone please tell me what a "." value in a stata file mean for a panel respondent?  Indonesia Dataset

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-anyone-please-tell-me-what-a-value-in-a-stata-file-mean-for-a-panel-respondent-indonesia-dataset/1311>\
**Category:** INTERNATIONAL\
**Created:** [May 18, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-anyone-please-tell-me-what-a-value-in-a-stata-file-mean-for-a-panel-respondent-indonesia-dataset/1311 "2016-05-18T12:59:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gregrandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@gregrandolph](https://forum.ipums.org/u/gregrandolph)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-anyone-please-tell-me-what-a-value-in-a-stata-file-mean-for-a-panel-respondent-indonesia-dataset/1311/1 "2016-05-18T12:59:00Z")

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I am trying to look at migration trends between 2000 and 2010 and when I merged the two samples for the respective years, Curiously observations appear as follows (see Image 1)

 ![questionImage-1-18075029-full.png](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/ipums/original/1X/11a3198d6a6d52d63c25c0ccc0319b44498f2ce1.png)

the serial and pernum identifies the dataset uniquely. The above screen shot is just a quick browse of households with serial number 1000. But there are about 2.3 crore observations.

id2010a\_di~5- district 5 years ago asked in 2010

id2000a\_re~r district 5 yaers ago asked in 2000

Question is- What does the “.” under the variable id2010a\_di~5 really mean? For every individual who has a value for variable id2000a\_re~r there are no corresponding values-represented by"."- for id2010a\_di~5 and vice versa. It cannot be the case that there has not been any migration from 2000 to 2010. So I am missing some link. Is it the interpretation of the “.”?

I used count if (id2010a\_dist5!=id2000a\_reg5yr) & id2010a\_dist5!=. & id2000a\_reg5yr!=.

and it said 0. Basically I expected that this would give me number of people who migrated between 2000 and 2010.

Help Needed.

Thanks,

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**Author:** ![Tim\_Moreland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f1d935/32.png) [@Tim\_Moreland](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Tim_Moreland)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-anyone-please-tell-me-what-a-value-in-a-stata-file-mean-for-a-panel-respondent-indonesia-dataset/1311/2 "2016-05-18T21:30:00Z")

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The IPUMS-International [microdata](https://international.ipums.org/international-action/faq#ques8) is cross-sectional, not panel data. As a result, the sample of households in the 2010 Indonesian Census is distinct from the 2000 Census sample and the [SERIAL](https://international.ipums.org/international-action/variables/SERIAL#description_section) variable identifies households uniquely within a sample only, not across samples.

This means that a Stata value of “.” signals a question was not asked in that sample year’s questionnaire. Specifically, [ID2000A\_REG5YR](https://international.ipums.org/international-action/variables/ID2000A_0413#description_section) was [collected](https://international.ipums.org/international-action/variables/ID2000A_0413#availability_section) in the 2000 Indonesian Census and [ID2010A\_DIST5](https://international.ipums.org/international-action/variables/ID2010A_0421#description_section) was [collected](https://international.ipums.org/international-action/variables/ID2010A_0421#availability_section) in the 2010 Indonesian Census. Respondents in the 2010 sample are not asked where they lived 5 years prior to the 2000 Census, so this value will be missing in your data extract.

Hope this helps.