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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Most of this tutorial aims at getting you started fast and smoothly with SPSS syntax. But before doing so, let’s briefly point out some major reasons why working from syntax is the single best practice for SPSS.* SPSS Syntax – Some Advantages Your syntax file tells you exactly what you’ve done so far with your data. It holds all details of […]
While working in SPSS, it’s pretty common to reorder your variables. This tutorial shows how to do so the right way. We encourage you try the examples for yourself by downloading and opening hotel_evaluation.sav, a screenshot of which is shown below. SPSS Reorder Variables Example 1 Right, the most common way for reordering variables in SPSS […]
SPSS RECODE replaces data values with different values. It comes in handy for merging categories, dichotomizing continuous variables and some other tasks. This tutorial walks you through its main options, best practices and pitfalls. SPSS Recode Example 1 For quickly getting very proficient with RECODE it’s recommended you follow along with the examples. You’ll soon notice […]
For working proficiently with SPSS string variables , it greatly helps to understand some string basics. This tutorial explains what SPSS string variables are and demonstrates their main properties. We encourage you along by downloading and opening string_basics.sav. The syntax we use can be copy-pasted or downloaded here. SPSS String Variables – What Are They? String variables are one […]
Most of us start working with SPSS from its point-click menu. Doing so without pasting and saving all syntax may seem obvious at first but often turns out to be a pitfall. Using SPSS syntax may seem a bit difficult at first but often turns out to save tons of time and effort in the end. This tutorial explains […]
This tutorial covers some obvious and some less obvious functions for editing numeric variables. You can follow along with this tutorial by downloading and opening hospital.sav. They syntax we’ll use can be copy-pasted or downloaded here. Specifying User Missing Values This tutorial will only use the last 2 variables in the data.* Before doing anything else, we first specify […]
SPSS Data Editor window is SPSS’ main window. This is the only window that’s always open whenever we run SPSS. It’s recognized by a red icon in its left top corner. The Data Editor has two tabs in the left bottom corner: we can click Data View for inspecting our data values. Alternatively, Variable View shows information regarding the meaning […]
