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 […]
SPSS offers several ways to change a variable’s type. This tutorial will walk you through some examples. SPSS Variable Type – Why Change it in the First Place? What you can do with a variable may depend on its type and – to a lesser extent – on its format. For example, you can extract substrings from string variables but not from numeric variables. […]
The right way for changing variable names in SPSS is using RENAME VARIABLES. Changing variable names manually in variable view is a bad idea because you can’t keep track of what you did. This tutorial shows a better alternative. Changing Variable Names in SPSS Changing variable names with syntax is straightforward with the RENAME VARIABLES command. The main thing to keep in mind is […]
Changing a variable’s width is rarely necessary. Nevertheless, it’s good to know how when it’s needed and how it’s done. Changing Variable Width in SPSS For string variables, width refers to how many characters a value can hold. An exception are multibyte characters as explained in SPSS Unicode Mode. Somewhat confusingly, “width” is not the width of a variable’s column […]
A great way to start working from syntax is using “Paste” instead of “Ok”. However, there’s no “Paste” option for modifying most variable properties. This tutorial shows how handle that properly. Changing Variable Properties Note that all variable properties (such as variable labels and value labels) are part of the SPSS dictionary. It is strongly recommended you use syntax in […]
Managing variable and value labels without syntax is way more work than necessary. This tutorial explains how to do this more efficiently. Changing Variable Labels in SPSS As with other parts of the dictionary, there’s no “Paste” option for modifying variable labels. Be aware that manual modifications – apart from being time consuming – are not […]
It’s not informative that “a respondent has 0 on v1” unless you know what v1 and 0 refer to. Such information – what the data actually represent – is collectively know as the dictionary. This tutorial merely explains what the SPSS dictionary is. For learning how to modify it properly (that is, by syntax), see Changing Variable Properties 1 – Introduction. SPSS Dictionary – What is […]
