Entering data in SPSS

1. Data Editor

§  Just like spreadsheet

     ·         Defining, entering, editing and displaying data

        ·          Its Extension is”sav”

2. output / Variable viewer

Display output errors

         ·          Its Extension is”spv”

         ·          Editable

·          Graphs and tables can be copied.

·          Two sheets are used    i) Data Sheet   ii) Variable Sheet

      i) Data Sheet

The Data Editor consists of two windows. By default the Data View, which allows the data to be entered and viewed

used to contain the data for statistical and analysis.

ii) Variable Sheet

The other window is the Variable View, which allows the types of variables to be specified and viewed.

contain detail information about information about variable.

Like   1. Name

the chosen variable name. This can be up to eight alphanumeric characters but must begin with a letter. While the underscore (_) is allowed, hyphens (-), ampersands (&), and spaces cannot be used. Variable names are not case sensitive

2. Type

the type of data. SPSS provides a default variable type once variable values have been entered in a column of the Data View.

3. Width

the width of the actual data entries. The default width of numerical variable entries is eight. The width can be increased or decreased by highlighting the respective cell in the third column.

4. Decimals.

the number of digits to the right of the decimal place to be displayed for data entries. This is not relevant for string data and for such variables the entry under the fourth column is given as a greyed-out zero.

5. Label

a label attached to the variable name. In contrast to the variable name, this is not confined to eight characters and spaces can be used. It is generally a good idea to assign variable labels.

They are helpful for reminding users of the meaning of variables and can be displayed in the output from statistical analyses.

6. Values

labels attached to category codes. For categorical variables, an integer code should be assigned to each category and the variable defined to be of type “numeric.”

7. Missing

missing value codes. SPSS recognizes the period symbol as indicating a missing value. If other codes have been used (e.g., 99, 999) these have to be declared to represent missing values by

highlighting the respective cell in the seventh column, clicking the three-periods symbol and filling in the resulting Missing Values dialogue box accordingly.

8. Columns

width of the variable column in the Data View. The default cell width for numerical variables is eight. Note that when the Width value is larger than the Columns value, only part of the data entry might be seen in the Data View.

9. Align

alignment of variable entries. The SPSS default is to align numerical variables to the right-hand side of a cell and string variables to the left.

10. Measure

measurement scale of the variable. The default chosen by SPSS depends on the data type. For example, for variables of type “numeric,” the default measurement scale is a continuous or interval scale (referred to by SPSS as “scale”).