Hello Statalist, I have a particularly unique, perhaps esoteric question.

I am attempting to create some rules to recode some variables based on a string where there was a maximum of 3 responses allowed, and I have -split- the var which generated 3 new variables (var1, var2, var3). So ideally, if someone responded any combination of numbers as well as the number 5, I would want to recode the "5" to a missing.

So if, for example, someone responded "2, 4, 5", I would replace the var3 response of "5" to a "." but this gets quite burdensome with how many combinations there are. If there had been only two responses allowed, it would be quite easy to do "replace var2 = . if var == "1,5" and then repeat for "2,5" and "3,5" and "4,5".

But I've become curious if there is a way to just indicate "any#, 5" ... perhaps "?,5" or something like that (although I know that specifically will not work).

Thank you in advance for any insight!