
#SPSS COMPUTE VARIABLE HOW TO#
Unlike SPSS, which makes it very easy to define variable labels using the. Creating dummy variables in SPSS Statistics Introduction If you are analysing your data using multiple regression and any of your independent variables were measured on a nominal or ordinal scale, you need to know how to create dummy variables and interpret their results. For example, if testing for a fair, six-sided die, there would be five degrees of freedom because there are six categories or parameters (each number) the number of times the die is rolled does not influence the number of degrees of freedom.Ĭhi-squared distribution, showing X 2 on the x-axis and P-value on the y-axis. The mean of a particular variable in a dataset is obtained by calculating the. The degrees of freedom are not based on the number of observations as with a Student's t or F-distribution. Pearson's chi-squared test ( χ 2 is the number of categories. efficient method of communication (SPSSX-L list and newsgroup use syntax to post answers, these "answers" can be understood by people using SPSS versions other than English.For broader coverage of this topic, see Chi-squared test.allow access to all SPSS features (some features of SPSS are only available through syntax).opens the door to macro (getting used to syntax is a prerequisite to accessing the macro world).batch processing (syntax files can be automatically run at night when system resources are greater).try to redo a one hour "point and click" session!) reproducibility of results (this is a corollary of 1.documentation (the syntax file automatically documents what was done).Other benefits of using syntax files are: See Syntax Editor Window on the University Central Michigan's site if you do not know how to do that.
#SPSS COMPUTE VARIABLE CODE#
It should be obvious that syntax leads to huge gains of productivity.Įven if John had not saved his analysis in a syntax file, it is easy to recover the code from the journal file. If John has saved his analysis in syntax file, he will be able to do any of the above in 2–3% of the time he would have needed to redo it manually using "point and click". So it's important to understand what it can do for us. Compute variable function is a very important function, and often, we are going to use it in SPSS. b) some sales info were missing (or were incorrect) from the file and he has to redo the analysis. In this section, we will learn the Compute Variable Function that is located in the Transform menu.the analysis will have to be done weekly from now on.he requests the whole thing be redone but separately for each operating divisions.a) John's manager finds the analysis so interesting that.Many things may happen after the analysis is completed: Imagine John uses "point and click" to execute data transformations, add value and variable labels and run 50 procedures on a company wide sales data file. The more one uses SPSS, the more one needs to use syntax files as opposed to the "point and click" method. The need to use syntax cannot be overstated. This is the content of the syntax file created above: (For a good description of how to use the Syntax window, SPSS's journal and the Log, see Syntax Editor Window on the University Central Michigan's site.) Save the syntax file (using the menu of the syntax window): FILE>SAVE (or use Ctrl-S).Using the menu, select ANALYZE>DESCRIPTIVE>FREQUENCIES, move the variable jobcat to the Variable(s) Text Box.Paste the command in the syntax window.Double click the Log listing (on the right hand side of the Output Window) select and copy the GET FILE command.If you do not see the Log, refer to Keep the Log! for instructions. (Of course the path in your system may be different). Check the Log in the Output window, it will contain GET FILE='C:\Program Files\SPSS\Employee data.sav'.Using the data editor menu, select FILE>NEW>SYNTAX (this opens a new syntax window).Using the menu, load the file "employee data.sav" which came with SPSS.As far as I am concerned, the main purpose of the GUI is to facilitate writing syntax! Another key point is to make sure the commands are printed in the Output Window (see Keep the Log!)
#SPSS COMPUTE VARIABLE WINDOWS#
One of the key to syntax writing is the Paste Button which exists in most windows of the Graphic User Interface (GUI). General SPSS Learning Resources Key Items
