“I have a data file on which I’d like to carry out several regression analyses. I have four dependent variables, v1 through v4. The independent variables (v5 through v14) are the same for all analyses. How can I carry out these four analyses in an efficient way that would also work for 100 dependent variables?” […]
Question “I found a variable “v_4” in an old data file and I can’t remember how exactly I created it. The syntax I used got a bit messy, I have different files and they’re in different folders. Is there an easy way to find out which syntax files contain the expression “v_4″?” SPSS Search Syntax […]
Question “I’d like to work with a number of .sav files but they are scattered over different folders. All file names are unique. Is there any easy way to search through a number of folders for .sav files and move these into some root directory?” SPSS Python Syntax Example *1. Create random test folders and […]
Question “I’d like to completely remove the value label from a value for many variables at once. Is there an easy way to accomplish that?” SPSS Python Syntax Example begin program. variables = ‘v1 to v5‘ # Specify variables here. value = 3 # Specify value to unlabel here. import spss,spssaux vDict = spssaux.VariableDict(caseless = True) varList […]
After importing some data into SPSS, some answers ended up in a single string variable. The data are in splitstrings.sav, part of which is shown below. Excel has a nice “text to columns” function to split it but SPSS hasn’t…So you think you can syntax?Then let’s go and split this string into the original answers. Step 1 – New […]
Question “I have a data file in which all variables were measured in 2012. I’d like to suffix their names with “_2012”. What’s the easiest way to do this?” SPSS Python Syntax Example begin program. variables = ‘v5 to v10‘ #Specify variables to be suffixed. suffix =’_2012‘ # Specify suffix. import spss,spssaux oldnames = spssaux.VariableDict().expand(variables) […]
Question “I have an Excel workbook whose three sheets contain data values, variable labels and value labels. How can I apply the dictionary information from these last two sheets to the SPSS dataset after importing the data values?” Option A: Python A nice and clean option is to have Python read the dictionary information from the Excel sheets. The […]
A local supermarket held a small survey, the data of which are in minisurvey.sav. Unfortunately, the software for downloading the data in SPSS format prefixes all variable and value labels with the variable names. The screenshot below shows part of the data. Undesired Prefixes in Value Labels Clicking on some value labels in variable view confirms that they’ve […]
A teacher held a course evaluation. The data in SPSS format are in course_evaluation.sav, part of which is shown below. Students from different majors participated and now the education director wants separate Excel files for each major. A super easy way for creating these is by using SPSS with Python. We’ll walk you through. 1. Save SPSS Data as […]
Running syntax over several SPSS data files in one go is fairly easy. If we use SPSS with Python we don’t even have to type in the file names. The Python os (for operating system) module will do it for us. Try it for yourself by downloading spssfiles.zip. Unzip these files into d:\spssfiles as shown below and you’re good to go. Find All Files […]
Learn Python for SPSS the right way by running some of the examples below. They show precisely how to get things done in SPSS the fastest way possible and are easily modified to suit your needs. Enjoy! Latest SPSS Python Examples Batch Process Files with Python Create Several Excel Files with Python Change Value Labels with Python SPSS with […]
The right way for looping over tables, charts and other procedures in SPSS is with Python. We’ll show how to do so on some real world examples. We’ll use alcotest.sav throughout, part of which is shown below. Note that you need to have the SPSS Python Essentials properly installed for running these examples on your own computer. Example 1: Simple Loop over Bar […]
An often requested feature is to export variable and value labels to Excel. This handy tool creates an SPSS Dataset containing these labels. It can either be be saved as an Excel sheet or further edited in SPSS. SPSS Create Dictionary Dataset Tool – How To Use Make sure you have the SPSS Python Essentials installed. Next, download and […]
A common task in Python is building strings from other strings, especially if we’re creating SPSS syntax. We could simply concatenate strings into larger strings but there’s a nicer way: string replacements with the % sign. Please note that the examples in this tutorial assume Python2.x* and may not run in Python3.x. Python String Replacement with %s *Replace […]
The most important Python object we’ll deal with are strings. This tutorial presents a quick overview of Python string methods. However, let’s first learn some very basics. Python Strings – Basic Rules Strings may be enclosed by single or double quotes if they don’t contain any line breaks; Strings may always be enclosed by 3 single […]
SPSS users who want to speed up their work by using Python will encounter some surprises. This tutorial walks you through the 5 major pitfalls and shows how to avoid them. 1. Python is Fully Case Sensitive SPSS is mostly case insensitive; if we have a variable “gender”, we can address it in syntax as gender or GENDER or anything in between. […]
So how does Python for SPSS actually work? First off, a distinction is often made between SPSS Python programmability and SPSS Python scripting. They work similarly in that some Python code is included in SPSS syntax; SPSS passes this Python code on to Python; Python may then look up information in SPSS such as variable names in the dataset or tables in the output window; […]
So how does Python for SPSS actually work? First off, a distinction is often made between SPSS Python programmability and SPSS Python scripting. They work similarly in that some Python code is included in SPSS syntax; SPSS passes this Python code on to Python; Python may then look up information in SPSS such as variable names in the dataset or tables in the output window; […]
Python is a programming language that can be integrated with SPSS versions 14 and higher. By using Python in SPSS you can automate basically any SPSS task such as batch processing data files or output tables and charts. Recent SPSS versions allow you to add SPSS extensions similarly to apps on a smartphone. Most extensions can be used from […]
Python is among the most important programming languages today and can be used in SPSS. Doing so may truly decimate the time and effort you need to get things done. This tutorial briefly explains what Python is, how it relates to SPSS and why you might want to start using it. What is Python? Python is among the most important […]
