One of the first things people notice during our SPSS training courses is the similarity between SPSS and spreadsheets like Excel. Indeed, the data entry page you are presented with is much like a basic spreadsheet, but there are a few differences that need to be grasped before you can get to grips with the software.
In SPSS the horizontal rows are dedicated to each item of data (for instance each respondent to a survey), while the vertical columns are to be used for each variable (such as their height, weight, or IQ - whatever data you have collected).
While this might seem simple enough, it is important you do not just jump in transferring data to the spreadsheet. First, you need to learn a little about preparing the vertical columns.
If you do not name your columns, SPSS will choose a default name like VAR00001. To change the names to ones that are more meaningful to you, click on the ‘Variable View’ tab in the bottom left of the screen. SPSS will not allow spaces or punctuation to be used in the name column here, so if you need to separate words, use an underscore.
While you’re there, make sure your columns are prepared to format your data properly. Click on type and select between string and numeric. String should be used if you are going to be entering letters or words and you do not want SPSS to recognise the data as a number.
You might also need to change the width too - that’s the number of characters SPSS will allow you to enter for each entrant in that variable. Decimals refers to how many decimal points you would like to include after your numerical data, the Label is a space to briefly describe your variable (with spaces allowed this time!), Values allows you to team up numerical and descriptive terms (for instance where 1=male and 2=female) and Measure allows you to tell the programme whether your data is nominal, ordinal or scale.
The Column and Align fields are more to do with the presentation of the data, to make it easy to read. Just like in an Excel spreadsheet, you can decide how wide the columns should be and whether the text should be aligned to the left, centre or right.
Make sure you have prepared your columns in the Variable View before you start entering statistics in the Data View, otherwise you could soon find yourself swimming in unlabeled data!
There are more tips from our SPSS training courses coming soon.
In SPSS the horizontal rows are dedicated to each item of data (for instance each respondent to a survey), while the vertical columns are to be used for each variable (such as their height, weight, or IQ - whatever data you have collected).
While this might seem simple enough, it is important you do not just jump in transferring data to the spreadsheet. First, you need to learn a little about preparing the vertical columns.
If you do not name your columns, SPSS will choose a default name like VAR00001. To change the names to ones that are more meaningful to you, click on the ‘Variable View’ tab in the bottom left of the screen. SPSS will not allow spaces or punctuation to be used in the name column here, so if you need to separate words, use an underscore.
While you’re there, make sure your columns are prepared to format your data properly. Click on type and select between string and numeric. String should be used if you are going to be entering letters or words and you do not want SPSS to recognise the data as a number.
You might also need to change the width too - that’s the number of characters SPSS will allow you to enter for each entrant in that variable. Decimals refers to how many decimal points you would like to include after your numerical data, the Label is a space to briefly describe your variable (with spaces allowed this time!), Values allows you to team up numerical and descriptive terms (for instance where 1=male and 2=female) and Measure allows you to tell the programme whether your data is nominal, ordinal or scale.
The Column and Align fields are more to do with the presentation of the data, to make it easy to read. Just like in an Excel spreadsheet, you can decide how wide the columns should be and whether the text should be aligned to the left, centre or right.
Make sure you have prepared your columns in the Variable View before you start entering statistics in the Data View, otherwise you could soon find yourself swimming in unlabeled data!
There are more tips from our SPSS training courses coming soon.
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