1. the translation of material from one form into another. For example, to facilitate memory, a series of random digits (e.g., 239812389712) could be recoded as a series of four-digit prices ($23.98, $12.38, $97.12), thereby making the series much easier to recall. See chunking; elaboration.

2. a manipulation of an original variable in a data set so that it can be used in a different way in future analysis (e.g., reverse keying items, collapsing many categories into a few). See also transformation. —recode vb.