Tag: searches related to standardize a variable in spss
SPSS Sampling Basics
Summary How to draw one or many samples from your data in SPSS? This tutorial demonstrates some simple ways for doing so. We’ll point out some tips, tricks and pitfalls along the way. Let’s get started and create some test data by running the syntax below. SPSS Syntax for Creating Test Data *Create test data with […]
Date Variables
In SPSS, a date is the number of seconds since the year 1582. These are huge numbers but they are still just numbers like somebody’s weight in kilos or the number of cars in some household. The main difference between dates and other variables is that SPSS displays dates with slashes or dots as in “2016/11/07”. Once you fully realize […]
Changing Variable Properties 3 – Type
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. […]
Changing Variable Properties 2 – Names
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 Variable Properties 4 – Width and Decimals
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 […]
Changing Variable Properties 1 – Introduction
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 […]
SPSS Numeric Variables Basics
Introduction Having a basic understanding of SPSS numeric variables allows you to work fast and with a sense of confidence. This tutorial aims at accomplishing just that by pointing out some essential basics. You may follow along with this tutorial by downloading and opening hospital.sav. SPSS Numeric Variables – What Are They? Numeric variables are one of […]
How to Compute Means in SPSS?
This tutorial shows how to compute means over both variables and cases in a simple but solid way. We encourage you follow along by downloading and opening restaurant.sav, part of which is shown below. Quick Data Check Before computing anything whatsoever, we always need to know what’s in our data in the first place. Skipping this […]
How to Compute Age in SPSS?
A course was evaluated by 183 students. The data are in course_evaluation.sav, part of which is shown below. The teacher wants to know the average age of his students but we only have their date of birth. 1. Ensure Date of Birth is a Date Variable The first thing we’ll do is check if date of […]
Dictionary Tutorial
Properties of variables and values such as names, formats and labels are collectively referred to as the dictionary in SPSS. Most of the dictionary is seen under variable view but -trust me on this one- you don’t want to edit anything here manually or by copy-pasting.Instead, manage your dictionary by syntax -it’s way faster, easier and safer. The […]