In this example, we will enter an id number, the first and last name, age and weight for nine folks. All of the variables will be numeric, except of course, the names. We will also save the file. If you are listing only one string variable and there is one or more numeric variables listed before the string variable, you need to put an asterisk before the name of the string variable to tell SPSS that the variables listed before the asterisk are numeric variables.
The asterisk tells SPSS that all prior variables are numeric. You may also notice that SPSS produced an error message, shown below, while reading in the data. It was caused by the missing data value for wt in case 1. Despite this error message, the data were read in correctly, as we can see by using the list command. An error message was not generated for the missing value in lname in case 7 because ". In other words, SPSS does not consider it a missing value.
We will return to this issue shortly. Suppose that we would like to add a string variable called gender. First, we need to create the new variable using the string command. Then we will assign values to the variable. Note also that upper and lower case is distinguished and e.
SPSS offers also a number of specific functions that perform operations on string variables. Before explaining more, a few general rules:. In the second example, RECODE is used to convert a string variable into a numeric variable, if the string only contains numerical digits. So we will create Feedback as the first variable. By default, it's Numeric, so we will convert it into the String variable because it is going to be in the statement of format.
Then we will create Name as the second variable and convert it into a String variable. Now the variables have been created. Since we have restricted Width to 8 so, we need to increase it. Let's keep it more than a thousand.
So we can write a full story if we want about the feeling of their subject. We will also increase the Width of Name variable so that we can accommodate the longer name. If we don't increase the width, the text will be truncated. Suppose we are writing I felt very good , but because of lower width it will be truncated as " I felt v " like this:. Now we increase the width of Income as , and click on the Data View option and enter a dummy Feedback. Suppose the first subject says, "I felt very good.
JavaTpoint offers too many high quality services. Mail us on [email protected] , to get more information about given services. Please mail your requirement at [email protected] Duration: 1 week to 2 week. Information for the type of each variable is displayed in the Variable View tab. Click this and the Variable Type window will appear. You can use this dialog box to define the type for the selected variable, and any associated information e. The two common types of variables that you are likely to see are numeric and string.
Numeric variables, as you might expect, have data values that are recognized as numbers. This means that they can be sorted numerically or entered into arithmetic calculations. When viewed in the Data View window, system-missing values for numeric variables will appear as a dot i. Note that one should not type in a period character in a cell to specify a missing value.
Simply leave the cell blank, and SPSS will recognize it as system-missing. Importantly, numeric variables in SPSS can also be used to denote nominal unordered or ordinal categorical variables. In those cases, it almost always inappropriate to treat those variables as numbers, even though SPSS may not stop you from doing so. For example, it's extremely common to record demographic variables like sex using the number codes 1 and 2 instead of the words "male" and "female".
Although these would be defined as numeric variables in your SPSS dataset, it would not be appropriate to use them in arithmetic operations, since the number codes are stand-ins for nominal categories and nominal categories can't be used in arithmetic operations. So if you are examining a new dataset, you should not assume that all numeric variables represent interval or ratio variables.
All of the following are examples of variables that could be entered as numeric variables in an SPSS dataset:. Example: Continuous variables that can take on any number in a range e. The researcher can choose as many or as few decimal places as they feel are necessary. In this situation, the Measure setting should be defined as Scale ; see the Defining Variables tutorial for more information on how to set measurement levels.
This particular type of numeric variable is appropriate to use in arithmetic operations adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing. Example: Counts e. In this situation, the Measure setting should be defined as Scale. Certain mathematical calculations are valid when applied to count variables e.
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