Using SPSS:
Introduction
Department of Operations
Weatherhead School of Management
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Opening SPSS in the Comp. Lab
 Start → All Programs → [ Analytical & Statistical ] → SPSS 20
→ IBM SPSS Statistics
Click
Click
Double
Click
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Starting SPSS
 When you first start SPSS, you will see…
Here, you can open
an existing file.
Here, you can
create a new file.
Or you can ignore
this dialog by clicking CANCEL
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Layout of SPSS
 Then you will see the main menu of SPSS
 There are two sheets in the window
 1. Data view 2. Variable view
Menu Bar
Tool Bar
Data View
Variable View
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Entering Data in the
Data View Window
Name of the variable
To change the name of a variable, you must
change to the Variable View window.
Click
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Variable View Window
This sheet contains information about the
way the data set are stored.
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Variable View Window
Name
 This is where you can type the name you want for a variable.
 The first character of the variable name must be alphabetic.
 Variable names must be unique, and have to be less than 64
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characters.
Spaces are NOT allowed.
Variable names that end with an underscore should be avoided.
Certain key words are reserved and cannot be used as
variable names, e.g. “compute”, “sum” and so forth.
Variable View Window
Type
Click Here
You will see the “type” box
Variable View Window
Type (Cont.)
 This column enables you to specify the type of
data to be stored in this variable.
 The two basic types of variables that you will
use are numeric and string.
 String variables may contain letters or numbers.
For string values a blank is considered a valid
value.
 Numeric operations on the string variables are
NOT be allowed, e.g. finding the mean,
variance, standard deviation, etc…
Variable View Window
Width
 The number of characters SPSS allows for a data value to
be stored in this variable.
 For a numerical value with decimals, this total width has to
include a position for each decimal, as well as one for the
decimal point.
 Type the number you want or click the Up and Down
arrows.
Variable View Window
Decimals
 This is the number of decimal digits you want to display.
 It has to be less than or equal to 16.
 If more decimals have been entered or computed by SPSS,
the additional information will be retained internally but not
displayed on the screen.
 Type the number you want or click the Up and Down
arrows.
Variable View Window
Label
Double click,
then type in.
 A sequence to characters used to identify in
detail what a variable represents.
 Limited to 256 characters.
 May contain spaces and punctuation.
Variable View Window
Values
 This is used and to associate an integer to
a qualitative value when the variable is
qualitative (see the next slide).
Variable View Window
Values (Cont.)
Click Here
You will see the “Value” box
Variable View Window
Values (Cont.)
Type in the code/number.
Then type in the label.
Click
Click “Add”.
You will see the definition in
this window.
Click
When finished, click “OK”.
Here Value = 1 represents Male and Value = 0 represents Female
Variable View Window
Values (Cont.)
Click
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Now change to the Data View window …
Here are the Values
Click on the “toe tag” icon
The values change to…
Variable View Window
Missing
You will see the “Missing” box
Click Here
 Signal to SPSS which
data should be treated
as missing.
 System Missing data –
SPSS display a single
period.
Variable View Window
Columns
 How wide the column should be for each variable.
 Columns affect only the display of values in the Data Editor.
Changing the column width does not change the defined
width of a variable.
 Type in the number you want or click the Up and Down
arrows.
Variable View Window
Align
 This determines the data alignment in the
Data View window.
Variable View Window
Measure
Indicates whether the values of this variable are:
 Quantitative (“Scale)
 Qualitative (“Nominal” and “Ordinal”, which are
treated differently).
Creating an SPSS Data File
Click “File” in Menu Bar.
Then click “New”.
Then click “Data”.
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Opening an Existing a SPSS file
Click “File” in Menu Bar.
Then click “Open”.
Then click “Data”.
OR click “Open Data Doc”
icon in the Tool Bar.
Click
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Opening an Existing SPSS file
(Cont.)
 Then you will see the “Open Data” window…
 Change the location in the "Look in" box
to the subdirectory where your file is.
 Select the file.
 Click on the “Open” button.
Click
All SPSS files end with “.sav”
Opening an Existing SPSS file
(Cont.)
 You will see the data appear in the Data Editor window
 and more information about the variables in the Variable View
window.
Opening an Existing EXCEL File
 Get the “Open Data” window (just like opening an SPSS file).
 And change the location in the "Look in" box to the subdirectory where
your file is.
 Use the "Files of type" to select
Excel (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm) files.
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Opening an Existing EXCEL File
(Cont.)
 Select the file.
 Click the “Open” button.
 You will be asked about the
location of the variable names.
 Click “OK”
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Opening an Existing EXCEL File
(Cont.)
 You will see the data appear in the Data Editor window
There are some
errors here…
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Opening an Existing EXCEL File
(Cont.)
 Here is the original Excel file stereo.xls.
 Some Excel formatting cannot be read in SPSS.
Prepare the Excel file
before importing it...
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Opening an Existing EXCEL File
(Cont.)
 Here are the four general steps when importing Excel data.
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Close the Excel file before you try to import it in SPSS.
Arrange the data in a rectangular grid.
Don't mix strings and numbers.
Put variable names in your first row.
This works…
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Opening an Existing EXCEL File
(Cont.)
 You may need to modify some of the variable
definitions (in the Variable View)
These three variables are useless…
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Saving an SPSS File
Click “File” in Menu Bar.
Then click “Save”.
OR double click “Save Data
Doc” icon in Tool Bar.
Click
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Saving an SPSS File (Cont.)
 Then you will see the “Save Data” window…
 Change the location in the "Look in" box
to the subdirectory where your want to
save the file.
 Type in the file name .
 Click on the “Save” button.
Click
By default, SPSS will add a
“.sav” extension to the file name.
Saving an SPSS File (Cont.)
 If you want, you can choose the variables you want to save…
 Click the “Variables” button.
 You will get the “Variables” window.
 Choose the desired variables, then click “Continue”
Click
Click
Click
Saving an SPSS File (Cont.)
 Here are two different saved SPSS files from one data set…
Saving Data as an Excel File
Click “File” in Menu Bar.
Then click “Save As”.
Then you will see the “Save
Data” window
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Saving Data as an Excel File (Cont.)
 Use the ”Save as type" to select Excel (*.xlsx) files.
 The other steps are same as saving an SPSS file.
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Saving Data as an Excel File (Cont.)
 Here is the saved Excel file example.
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Reference
 www.uri.edu/its/ppt/spss.intro.ppt
 http://www.hec.gov.pk/InsideHEC/Divisions/QALI/LearningInnovati
on/Documents/Learning%20Portal/Master%20Trainer%20(MT)/F
PDP/SPSS/Introduction_SPSS_Chaleunvong_Laos_2009.pdf
 http://oit.wvu.edu/training/files/spss17_statistics.pdf
 http://www.childrensmercy.org/stats/data/excel.aspx
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