Summing many variables

[Lefty]

Hi,

I think there's a simple solution to this problem, but I can't find it for the life of me.

I have a wide dataset of about 800 people that includes all the visits they made to their doctors over a period of 2 years. Some people visited once (everyone had to visit at least once to be included) and some visited many times- one person had 910 visits. For each visit, I have a continuous number that indicates the amount of time the doctor spent on that visit. For each patient, I want to add up all the times over the two year period so that each patient has one "total" time value. I want the missing values to count as zeroes. If there were not many visits, I would just use the sum statement, like:

total_time=sum(time1,time2,time3);

But do I really have to write it out 910 times?? I tried using a dash:

total_time=sum(time1-time910);

But total_time was missing as a result of doing that.

Is there any other way? Thanks so much in advance.

Laurie

[data_null__ · Accepted solution]

totat=sum(OF time1-time910);