SPSS output usually looks terrible. However, it doesn’t have to: you can manually style your tables and charts in the output window. The styles you apply such as colors, borders and fonts can be saved as SPSS chart templates and SPSS table templates. These can easily be reapplied to future output. A little known trick -but a real life saver […]
There’s several ways to open SPSS data files. The right way, however, is by syntax. The way we typically do so in practice may differ somewhat from what you’re used to. But give it a shot. It keeps things nicely organized and this eventually saves time and effort. We’ll use employees.sav throughout. Creating a Project Folder […]
Summary Some SPSS users argue that it’s not really necessary to work from syntax. If something goes wrong or a client doesn’t believe your results, you can always recover what you did from your journal file. However, the journal file is no reasonable substitute for syntax. This tutorial explains why. 1. Essential Modifications May be Missing Manual […]
You can use SPSS without using any syntax. However, this often results in users having to do their entire data analysis all over again at some point. Just don’t do it. The good news is that routinely using Paste instead of Ok gets you a long way. Do keep in mind that the syntax pasted by SPSS is usually unnecessarily long and complex. If you want to […]
COMPUTE v2 = RANGE(V1,2,4). SPSS RANGE Function Result Summary SPSS’ RANGE function is used to evaluate whether or not values are within a given range. Test values equal to the lower or upper boundary are also within the given range. Run the syntax below for a quick demonstration. SPSS Range Syntax Example *1. Create couple of cases. data list free/v1(f1). begin […]
Definition Scratch variables are temporary helper variables that don’t show up in your data. A variable is a scratch variable if (and only if) its name starts with “#”. SPSS Scratch Variable – Introduction Say we have a data file holding phone numbers. Now we’d like to extract the area codes into a separate variable. […]
DO REPEAT is a command for running other commands repetitively.SPSS DO REPEAT is often used for looping over (possibly new) variables. VECTOR with LOOP is an alternative way for doing so. Introduction Suppose we have a variable containing values 1 through 4 and we’d like to dichotomize it for a regression analysis. (For some more background, see Creating Dummy Variables in SPSS.) […]
SPSS DO REPEAT – Simple Tutorial & Examples SPSS LOOP – Quick Tutorial & Examples SPSS VECTOR – Quick Tutorial
Summary Reading multiple sheet Excel workbooks into SPSS is easily done with this Custom Dialog. This tutorial demonstrates how to use it. Before You Start SPSS Read and Merge Excel Files Tool Make sure you have the SPSS Python Essentials installed. Download and install the xlrd module. If you’d like to generate some test data as done in […]
Introduction Merging data with ADD FILES can result in nonsensical data. This occurs when variables or values have different meanings over files. By comparing dictionaries over files, inconsistently coded variables are quickly detected. So What’s the Problem? When files are merged with ADD FILES, inconsistent dictionary information is discarded. This will happen, for example, if a variable v1 means “gender” […]
In SPSS, a VECTOR is a list of (new or existing) variables that can be referenced by their indices in this list.VECTOR is often combined with LOOP. Creating Dummy Variables with VECTOR and LOOP SPSS Vector – Basic Example Suppose we’d like to Creating Dummy Variables in SPSS for a variable holding values 1 through 4. We’ll call […]
Definition SPSS Insert is a command for running syntax files from within another syntax file. This may help keeping your syntax organized. SPSS Insert Command – Why Use It? Executing all of your commands from syntax may be the single best practice for working with SPSS. One of the reasons is that you can correct steps early […]
xlrd is a module that allows Python to read data from Excel files. This tutorial explains where to get it and how to install it. Downloading the Python Xlrd Module The Python xlrd (short for “Excel Read”) module can be found here. After downloading it, you can extract the contents (twice) with 7 Zip. Copy the path of the folder that […]
SPSS FORMATS sets formats -decimal places, dates, percent signs and more- for numeric variables. Setting variable formats in SPSS does not change your actual data values. However, formats determine how your data are displayed -in the data viewer as well as the output-window. Two main uses of FORMATS are increasing or decreasing the decimal places of standard numeric variables; displaying date, time and datetime values (consisting […]
LOOP is a command for running one or many SPSS transformation commands repetitively. SPSS LOOP is often used together with VECTOR. An (often) easier alternative is DO REPEAT. There are several ways for looping in SPSS. It depends on the specifics of the situation which one(s) you can use. Note that these options are only available in syntax. An […]
SPSS Unicode mode is a setting which implies that all text is encoded as UTF-8 (Unicode Tranformation Format – 8 bit). Note that this tutorial leans substantively on Unicode. SPSS Unicode Mode – What and Why Up to version 15, all character encoding in SPSS was based on code pages. SPSS using code pages is now […]
A best practice in SPSS is to open and save all files with syntax. Like so, it can be easily seen which syntax was run on which data. One could use the syntax generated by Paste for this but there’s a much shorter and better option. Disadvantages of the Default Syntax Each time you open a data file from […]
One of the many things we love about SPSS is how easily it’s customized and extended with powerful new features. For instance, creating your own toolbar is utterly simple and may save a lot of time and effort. With SPSS version 18, SPSS Extension Bundles were introduced: create completely new SPSS commands, build a menu dialog for them and easily share your […]
This handy tool will set the exact sizes for one or many charts in the active output window. SPSS Set Chart Sizes Tool – How to Use it This tool requires SPSS version 18 or higher. For SPSS versions 14 through 17, you can use the syntax version from SPSS Set Chart Sizes with Syntax Tool. Before proceeding, […]
All tools on this page can be used from SPSS’ menu via a dialog window or by syntax. Our newest tools come as SPSS extensions and some older tools are SPSS Custom Dialogs.Some of these tools require SPSS version 17 or 18 with the SPSS Python Essentials in order to work. If so, this’ll be clearly indicated. We recently moved […]
