Statistical Package for Social
Science (SPSS)
Introduction
SPSS 19
Workshop October 9th 2011
The American University in Cairo
Department of University Academic Computing Technologies (UACT)
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Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), Study notes of Social Sciences
Originally developed as a programming language for conducting statistical analysis, it has grown into a complex and powerful application with now uses both a ...
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Statistical Package for Social
Science (SPSS)
Introduction
SPSS 19
Workshop October 9 th^2011
The American University in Cairo Department of University Academic Computing Technologies (UACT)
Table of contents
1 - Introducing the interface
2 - The variable view
3 - The Data View
4 - Statistical Example:
5 - The Output View
6 - Import an excel worksheet
7 - The syntax View
The variable view
At the bottom of the data window, you’ll notice a tab labeled Variable View. The variable view window contains the definitions of each variable in your data set, including its name, type, label, size, alignment, and other information.
The output view
The output window is where you see the results of your various queries such as frequency distributions, cross-tabs, statistical tests, and charts. If you’ve worked with Excel, you’re probably used to seeing all your work on one page, charts, data, and calculations. In SPSS, each window handles a separate task. The output window is where you see your results.
The syntax view
SPSS has never lost its roots as a programming language. Although most of your daily work will be done using the graphical interface, from time to time you’ll want to make sure that you can exactly reproduce the steps involved in arriving at certain conclusions. In other words, you’ll want to replicate your analysis. The best method of preserving the exact steps of a particular analysis is the syntax view.
Comma : A numeric variable whose values are displayed with commas delimiting every three places, and with the period as a decimal delimiter.
Dot : A numeric variable whose values are displayed with periods delimiting every three places, and with the comma as a decimal delimiter
Scientific notation : A numeric variable whose values are displayed with an embedded E and a signed power-of-ten exponent. The exponent can be preceded either by E or D with an optional sign, or by the sign alone--for example, 123, 1.23E2, 1.23D2, 1.23E+2, and even 1.23+2.
Date : A numeric variable whose values are displayed in one of several calendar date or clock- time formats. Select a format from the list. You can enter dates with slashes, hyphens, periods, commas, or blank spaces as delimiters.
Dollar: A numeric variable displayed with a leading dollar sign ($), commas delimiting every three places, and a period as the decimal delimiter. You can enter data values with or without the leading dollar sign.
Custom currency : A numeric variable whose values are displayed in one of the custom currency formats that you have defined in the Currency tab of the Options dialog box.
String: Values of a string variable are not numeric, and hence not used in calculations. They can contain any characters up to the defined length. Uppercase and lowercase letters are considered distinct.
In SPSS Variable names consists of the following rules.
- Names must begin with a letter.
- Names must not end with a period.
- Names must be no longer than eight characters.
- Names cannot contain blanks or special characters.
- Names must be unique.
- Names are not case sensitive. It doesn’t matter if you call your variable CLIENT, client, or CliENt. It’s all client to SPSS.
2) Variable label
Defining a label for a variable makes output easier to read but does not have any effect on the actual analysis. For example, the label "Family Identification Number" is easier to understand than the name of the variable, fam_id.
In order to make SPSS display the labels, go to View - > Value Label or Click on the Value Label icon located in the toolbar.
3) Missing value declaration
Missing Values defines specified data values as user-missing. For example, you might want to distinguish between data that are missing because a respondent refused to answer and data that are missing because the question didn't apply to that respondent. Data values that are specified as user- missing are flagged for special treatment and are excluded from most calculations.
- User-missing value specifications are saved with the data file. You do not need to redefine user- missing values each time you open the data file.
- You can enter up to three discrete (individual) missing values, a range of missing values, or a range plus one discrete value.
- Ranges can be specified only for numeric variables.
The easiest way to create or modify value labels is under the Variable View tab:
Enter a value and a label.
Click on the Add button.
When you are done, click on OK.
You can return here in the future and change value labels or remove them.
6) Measurement level
You can specify the level of measurement as scale (numeric data on an interval or ratio scale), ordinal, or nominal. Nominal and ordinal data can be either string (alphanumeric) or numeric.
- Nominal: A variable can be treated as nominal when its values represent categories with no intrinsic ranking (for example, the department of the company in which an employee works). Examples of nominal variables include region, zip code, and religious affiliation.
- Ordinal: A variable can be treated as ordinal when its values represent categories with some intrinsic ranking (for example, levels of service satisfaction from highly dissatisfied to highly satisfied). Examples of ordinal variables include attitude scores representing degree of satisfaction or confidence and preference rating scores.
- Scale: A variable can be treated as scale (continuous) when its values represent ordered categories with a meaningful metric, so that distance comparisons between values are appropriate. Examples of scale variables include age in years and income in thousands of dollars.
3 The Data View
The Data Editor provides a convenient, spreadsheet-like method for creating and editing data files. The Data Editor window opens automatically when you start a session. The Data Editor displays the contents of the active data file. The information in the Data Editor consists of variables and cases.
- In Data View, columns represent variables, and rows represent cases (observations).
In Data View, you can enter data directly in the Data Editor. You can enter data in any order. You can enter data by case or by variable, for selected areas or for individual cells.
- The active cell is highlighted.
- The variable name and row number of the active cell are displayed in the top left corner of the Data Editor.
Click on the Statistics button if you want Chi Squares or other statistics computed.
The report will display how many females and males are in each department
Click on OK when you are ready to generate your results.
To collapse a procedure, click on the - sign to the left of its name.
To see the list of its objects under a procedure, click on the + sign to the left of its name.
To delete a portion of your results, click on the procedure name on the left and press the Delete key.
To see the associated notes for a procedure, double click on the Notes object name listed beneath a procedure.
To rename an item on the left, click in the box and type.
6 Import an excel worksheet
Ideally, the worksheet should have the variable names in the first row. You may want to insert or edit them in the Excel file ahead of time.
- Go to the File menu and select Open > Data.
- Change the location in the "Look in" box to the subdirectory where your file is.
- Change the "Files of type" selection to look for Excel (*.xls) files.
- Select the file.
- You might get prompted about the variable names:
- Click on OK. You will see the data appear in the Data Editor window.
The Syntax Editor window is divided into four areas:
- The editor pane is the main part of the Syntax Editor window and is where you enter and edit command syntax.
- The gutter is adjacent to the editor pane and displays information such as line numbers and breakpoint positions.
- The navigation pane is to the left of the gutter and editor pane and displays a list of all commands in the Syntax Editor window and provides single click navigation to any command.
- The error pane is below the editor pane and displays runtime errors.
Set the language of SPSS to include Arabic
Type in the syntax editor (the window that will open ) this code set locale=Arabic then from
the menu bar choose run --> all
Reference
An icon next to each variable provides information about data type and level of measurement.