title: How to copy from one variable to another on SPSS
body: <p>I have a data set with two parent/carer respondents (main and partner) for each participant (child). For one of the variables, only one respondent has given an answer - usually the main respondent, but in some cases it was the partner respondent. I therefore need to fill in some missing main respondent data with data from the partner respondent.
  <br>My data looks roughly like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>MAIN                PARTNER              I would like the final var as below:
  2                   -1                      2
  1                   -1                      1
  -1                   2                      2
  1                    .                      1
  -9                   2                      2
  -8                   1                      1
  2                    .                      2
  1                    .                      1
  etc.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(-1, -8 and -9 are missing values)</p>
  
  <p>All variables are numeric. Where a response is missing from the main respondent, I would like to fill it in from the partner. I cannot seem to get the DO IF/RECODE commands to work.</p>
  
  <p>Any advice on how to do this in SPSS would be hugely appreciated!</p>