Most real world data contain some (or many) missing values. It’s always a good idea to inspect the amount of missingness for avoiding unpleasant surprises later on. In order to do so, SPSS has some missing values functions that are mostly used with COMPUTE, IF AND DO IF. This tutorial demonstrates how to use them effectively. We’ll do so […]
Summary SPSS uses a handful of hidden variables for keeping track of things. These so called system variables have names starting with “$” and can be useful in some cases. The most important one is $casenum, the number shown next to each case in the data editor window. SPSS $casenum SPSS $casenum In the left outline of the […]
SPSS COMPUTE command sets the data values for (possibly new) numeric variables and string variables. These values are usually a function (such as MEAN, SUM or something more advanced) of other variables. This tutorial walks you through doing just that. We’ll use hospital.sav,a screenshot of which is shown below. Before proceeding, we’ll first set 6 as a user missing value for the last 5 […]
Measurement levels refer to different types of variables that imply how to analyze them. Standard textbooks distinguish 4 such measurement levels or variable types. From low to high, these are nominal variables; ordinal variables; interval variables; ratio variables. The “higher” the measurement level, the more information a variable holds. The simple flowchart below shows how […]
Summary A great way to dichotomize variables is with a single short compute command. This is also the fastest way to create multi variable filters. How Does it Work? When the structure COMPUTE A = B = C is used, SPSS will evaluate whether (B = C) is True or False for each case. The outcome variable A will be the following If (B […]
SPSS’ Output Viewer window is the window that contains all output we generate. The most typical output items are tables and charts that describe patterns in our data. An Output Viewer window opens automatically when we generate output. It’s recognized by a purple icon (or for older SPSS versions). SPSS Output Viewer Window – Example We recommend […]
