SPSS – Set Missing Values with Syntax

When working with SPSS, specifying missing values correctly is often an essential step in analyzing data. This tutorial demonstrates how to set missing values the right way.

Setting Missing Values in SPSS

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, missing values can be specified with the MISSING VALUES command.
• A thing to note, however, is that missing values can be specified for multiple variables at once.
• Second, missing values may be specified as a range. If a range is used, a single discrete missing value can be added to it.
• The syntax example below gives some examples of this.

SPSS Missing Values Syntax Examples

(The test data used by the syntax below are found here.)

Changing Columns in SPSS

• Columns refers to how wide a variable column is displayed on screen. It can be set by the VARIABLE WIDTH command.
• This may be confusing since this does not refer to the “width” (length) of a variable as explained under variable width.
• Although setting columns doesn’t affect your actual data, it’s of minor importance. For the sake of completeness, the syntax example below demonstrates the command.

SPSS Variable Width Syntax Example

(The test data used by the syntax below are found here.)

Changing Variable Alignment in SPSS

• Variable alignment refers to how data values are aligned within their columns. The options are “left”, “centered” or “right”.
• As in MS Excel, the default settings are left for string variables and right for numeric variables.
• These can be overridden by the VARIABLE ALIGNMENT command as demonstrated below.

SPSS Variable Align Syntax Example

(The test data used by the syntax below are found here.)

Changing Measurement Levels in SPSS

• On a personal note, we feel the Measure property for setting measurement levels is rather useless. This is something that users – not software – should be aware of and take into account when analyzing data.
• Regretfully, some commands (most notably CTABLES) are actually affected by the measurement levels as specified by the user.
• In this case, the VARIABLE LEVEL command can be used for setting them to nominal, ordinal or scale (for metric variables).

SPSS Variable Level Syntax Example

(The test data used by the syntax below are found here.)

Changing Roles in SPSS

• Just as with Measure, we feel the “Role” property is rather useless and had perhaps better be removed from SPSS.
• For the sake of completeness, it can be modified as demonstrated below.

SPSS Variable Role Syntax Example

(The test data used by the syntax below are found here.)