Stat Computing > MLwiN > FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about MLwiN
How do I create a contextual variable (group mean)?

Strategy 1: Point and Click

We illustrate this using an example from page 55 of chapter 4 of Multilevel Analysis by Snijders and Bosker.  The variable ciq_verb represents the verbal iq at level 1 (students).  We wish to create a variable we will call miq_verb that is the mean of ciq_verb for each school. We can compute this as follows.

Choose Data Manipulation then Multilevel Data Manipulations .  In the window that is shown, fill in the values as shown below.  For the Input column choose ciq_verb and for the Output column pick a free column and then press Control-N and name the variable miq_verb and then click Add to action list then click on Execute.  Note that MLwiN does not give any feedback after clicking Execute.

Strategy 2: Command Interface

Say we wish to store miq_verb into the next free column which is c27.  We could then enter these commands in the command interface.

name c27 "miq_verb"
mlav "schoolnr" "ciq_verb" "miq_verb"

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