Realcomimputeload error: `var’ found where numeric variable

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baiyulaohu
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:51 pm

Realcomimputeload error: `var’ found where numeric variable

Post by baiyulaohu »

Dear colleagues,

I successfully completed MI process (m=10) by RealComImpute. When I tried to load the data to Stata by using “realcomimputeload”, I got the error message in Stata: `var’ found where numeric variable expected.

So, I go back to check the data folder: 10 Stata subdata sets have been successfully created. But the type of some variables (i.e., `var’) is character rather than numeric ones. I open the data set (i.e., either imputeiter100 or imp1.dta), and see some “NA” instead of numbers.

How can I fix it?

I am not sure if it could result from the convergence problems because this MI process ran for 8 days, where there were 35 responses (5 continuous variables, and others 30 are binary or ordinary) and 17 variables without missingness. I set up the number of iterations as the default (n=1000).

Any comments are highly appreciated.
Harvey Goldstein
Posts: 49
Joined: Sun Sep 06, 2009 5:30 pm

Re: Realcomimputeload error: `var’ found where numeric varia

Post by Harvey Goldstein »

I'm puzzled by this. I don't think that realcom will ever write 'NA' in these files. It is just possible that if the model fails to converge you could get 'NAN'.
Harvey Goldstein
baiyulaohu
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:51 pm

Re: Realcomimputeload error: `var��?found where numeric vari

Post by baiyulaohu »

Harvey Goldstein wrote:I'm puzzled by this. I don't think that realcom will ever write 'NA' in these files. It is just possible that if the model fails to converge you could get 'NAN'.
Harvey Goldstein

thank you so much for your reply, Harvey. How can I improve the possibility of converge?
ChrisCharlton
Posts: 1351
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:34 am

Re: Realcomimputeload error: `var’ found where numeric varia

Post by ChrisCharlton »

If you can sent a copy of your data and information on the model specification to H.Goldstein@bristol.ac.uk then we can investigate what is causing the issue.
baiyulaohu
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:51 pm

Re: Realcomimputeload error: `var��?found where numeric vari

Post by baiyulaohu »

ChrisCharlton wrote:If you can sent a copy of your data and information on the model specification to H.Goldstein@bristol.ac.uk then we can investigate what is causing the issue.

thanks very much for your offers. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to share the data with others according to our strict protocol. But I did find something like "perfect prediction" in my imputation model. I will re-run the model once I solve that issue. Thanks again.
ChrisCharlton
Posts: 1351
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:34 am

Re: Realcomimputeload error: `var’ found where numeric varia

Post by ChrisCharlton »

If you still find the problem after running again and can replicate it on simulated data then we could look at that instead.
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