Getting Started with SPSS

• How do I display variable names instead of labels in dialog box lists?
• How do I display the names or/and labels of variables in the output?
• How do I convert a string variable into a date?
• How do I change the order of variables(columns) in the Data View?
• How do I handle missing values?

1. From the menu, choose Edit > Options, the dialog box “Options” will pop up.
2. Under the General tab, select Display names in Variable Lists.

1. From the menu, choose Edit > Options, the dialog box “Options” will pop up.
2. Under the Output tab, select Names, Labels or Names and Labels.

Users can use the Date & Time Wizard from the Transform menu to convert string variables into dates.

In the Data View, first select the entire column of the variable you want to move by clicking its name, then drag it to its new location. Alternatively, you can also go to the Variable View and reorder rows.  

Missing values are normally omitted from most calculations in SPSS.

There are two types of missing values in SPSS: system missing values and user missing values. System missing values are data that is not present in the dataset and are shown as periods in the data view. This may occur when respondents skip some questions; User missing values are values that are excluded by the user when analyzing or editing data, such as unlikely values and answers like “don’t know” or “not applicable”.

User missing values can be specified in Variable View:

1. Click the button in the Missing cell for the variable you want to define.
2. Enter the values or range of values that represent missing data.

You can also use Frequencies to identify the number of missing values.