Adding a prefix to all variable names

[Derek Quinlan]

Hi All,

 

I have two datasets that I would like to combine (i.e. using the add variables merge).

Most of the variable names are common between the datasets.

 

I would like to add a prefix to each dataset prior to merging that would allow me to get past the repeating variable name problem.

 

Is there an easy way to do this? Or am I stuck manually adding the prefixes to 800+ variable names?

 

Derek

 

 

 

--
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
Research Project Coordinator
Psychology Lecturer
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


Mailing Address:
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
The University of Western Ontario
Westminster Hall, Suite 326E
London, ON  
N6A 3K7

[Samir Paul-2]

Hi Derek,

 

You can take the datasets to any database like SQL/ Access and write a small program to do this. You can send me the datasets with couples of sample records to do this. I can revert you with the program.
 

Samir Paul
382 Main Street
ON M4C 4X8, Toronto
Canada
Cell - [phone]
Home - [phone]
Fax - [phone]
Skype - paulsamir.2009

---

From: Derek Quinlan <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Fri, April 9, 2010 10:59:45 AM
Subject: Adding a prefix to all variable names

Hi All,

 

I have two datasets that I would like to combine (i.e. using the add variables merge).

Most of the variable names are common between the datasets.

 

I would like to add a prefix to each dataset prior to merging that would allow me to get past the repeating variable name problem.

 

Is there an easy way to do this? Or am I stuck manually adding the prefixes to 800+ variable names?

 

Derek

 

 

 

--
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
Research Project Coordinator
Psychology Lecturer
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


Mailing Address:
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
The University of Western Ontario
Westminster Hall, Suite 326E
London, ON  
N6A 3K7

---

Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr!

[Wilhelm Landerholm | Queue]

Hi!

This is an old Script by Jon Peck, to add an suffix to the varibles.
Open a new script, and paste this into it. Run by press F5.


'-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub Main
    Const SUFFIX= "_suffix"

    ' get variables
        Dim objDataDoc As ISpssDataDoc
        Dim objDocuments As ISpssDocuments
        Set objDocuments = objSpssApp.Documents

        Dim varList As Variant, newlist As Variant, oldlist As Variant
        Dim i As Long

        ' get the dictionary
        Set objDataDoc = objDocuments.GetDataDoc(0)

        ' Get the variables
        varList = objDataDoc.GetVariables (False)

        ' Iterate through the array of variables
        For i = LBound(varList) To UBound(varList)
                oldlist = oldlist & " " & varList(i)
                newlist = newlist & " " & varList(i) & SUFFIX
        Next i

        objSpssApp.ExecuteCommands "RENAME VARIABLES (" & oldlist & "=" & newlist & ").", _
                 False  'run cmd asynchronously

End Sub

'--------------------------------------

All the best

Wilhelm (Wille) Landerholm

Queue/STATB
BOX 92
162 12 Vallingby
Sweden

[phone]
http://www.qsweden.com
http://www.statb.com

QUEUE/STATB - your partner in data analysis, data modeling and data mining.

2010/4/9 Derek Quinlan <[hidden email]>

Hi All,

 

I have two datasets that I would like to combine (i.e. using the add variables merge).

Most of the variable names are common between the datasets.

 

I would like to add a prefix to each dataset prior to merging that would allow me to get past the repeating variable name problem.

 

Is there an easy way to do this? Or am I stuck manually adding the prefixes to 800+ variable names?

 

Derek

 

 

 

--
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
Research Project Coordinator
Psychology Lecturer
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


Mailing Address:
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
The University of Western Ontario
Westminster Hall, Suite 326E
London, ON  
N6A 3K7

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

Hi,

That's not too difficult. Tested (make sure the file is open):

begin program python.
import spssaux, spss
vs = spssaux.GetVariableNamesList()
spss.Submit("rename variables (%s = %s)." % ( " ".join(vs), " ".join(["prefix_" + v for v in vs]) ) )
end program.

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--- On Fri, 4/9/10, Wilhelm Landerholm | Queue <[hidden email]> wrote:

From: Wilhelm Landerholm | Queue <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [SPSSX-L] Adding a prefix to all variable names
To: [hidden email]
Date: Friday, April 9, 2010, 5:27 PM

Hi!

This is an old Script by Jon Peck, to add an suffix to the varibles.
Open a new script, and paste this into it. Run by press F5.


'-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub Main
    Const SUFFIX= "_suffix"

    ' get variables
        Dim objDataDoc As ISpssDataDoc
        Dim objDocuments As ISpssDocuments
        Set objDocuments = objSpssApp.Documents

        Dim varList As Variant, newlist As Variant, oldlist As Variant
        Dim i As Long

        ' get the dictionary
        Set objDataDoc = objDocuments.GetDataDoc(0)

        ' Get the variables
        varList = objDataDoc.GetVariables (False)

        ' Iterate through the array of variables
        For i = LBound(varList) To UBound(varList)
                oldlist = oldlist & " " & varList(i)
                newlist = newlist & " " & varList(i) & SUFFIX
        Next i

        objSpssApp.ExecuteCommands "RENAME VARIABLES (" & oldlist & "=" & newlist & ").", _
                 False  'run cmd asynchronously

End Sub

'--------------------------------------

All the best

Wilhelm (Wille) Landerholm

Queue/STATB
BOX 92
162 12 Vallingby
Sweden

[phone]
http://www.qsweden.com
http://www.statb.com

QUEUE/STATB - your partner in data analysis, data modeling and data mining.

2010/4/9 Derek Quinlan <derek.james.quinlan@...>

Hi All,

 

I have two datasets that I would like to combine (i.e. using the add variables merge).

Most of the variable names are common between the datasets.

 

I would like to add a prefix to each dataset prior to merging that would allow me to get past the repeating variable name problem.

 

Is there an easy way to do this? Or am I stuck manually adding the prefixes to 800+ variable names?

 

Derek

 

 

 

--
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
Research Project Coordinator
Psychology Lecturer
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


Mailing Address:
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
The University of Western Ontario
Westminster Hall, Suite 326E
London, ON  
N6A 3K7

[Wilhelm Landerholm | Queue]

Hi Derek,

Your problem sounded more like it would fit with suffixes than prefixes. I changed a bit in the previous script so you can set prefix.

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub Main
    Const PREFIX= "prefix_"

    ' get variables
        Dim objDataDoc As ISpssDataDoc
        Dim objDocuments As ISpssDocuments
        Set objDocuments = objSpssApp.Documents

        Dim varList As Variant, newlist As Variant, oldlist As Variant
        Dim i As Long

        ' get the dictionary
        Set objDataDoc = objDocuments.GetDataDoc(0)

        ' Get the variables
        varList = objDataDoc.GetVariables (False)

        ' Iterate through the array of variables
        For i = LBound(varList) To UBound(varList)
                oldlist = oldlist & " " & varList(i)
                newlist = newlist & " " & PREFIX & varList(i)
        Next i

        objSpssApp.ExecuteCommands "RENAME VARIABLES (" & oldlist & "=" & newlist & ").", _
                 False  'run cmd asynchronously

End Sub

'--------------------------------------

All the best

Wilhelm (Wille) Landerholm

Queue/STATB
BOX 92
162 12 Vallingby
Sweden

[phone]
http://www.qsweden.com
http://www.statb.com

QUEUE/STATB - your partner in data analysis, data modeling and data mining.

2010/4/9 Wilhelm Landerholm | Queue <[hidden email]>

Hi!

This is an old Script by Jon Peck, to add an suffix to the varibles.
Open a new script, and paste this into it. Run by press F5.


'-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub Main
    Const SUFFIX= "_suffix"

    ' get variables
        Dim objDataDoc As ISpssDataDoc
        Dim objDocuments As ISpssDocuments
        Set objDocuments = objSpssApp.Documents

        Dim varList As Variant, newlist As Variant, oldlist As Variant
        Dim i As Long

        ' get the dictionary
        Set objDataDoc = objDocuments.GetDataDoc(0)

        ' Get the variables
        varList = objDataDoc.GetVariables (False)

        ' Iterate through the array of variables
        For i = LBound(varList) To UBound(varList)
                oldlist = oldlist & " " & varList(i)
                newlist = newlist & " " & varList(i) & SUFFIX
        Next i

        objSpssApp.ExecuteCommands "RENAME VARIABLES (" & oldlist & "=" & newlist & ").", _
                 False  'run cmd asynchronously

End Sub

'--------------------------------------

All the best

Wilhelm (Wille) Landerholm

Queue/STATB
BOX 92
162 12 Vallingby
Sweden

[phone]
http://www.qsweden.com
http://www.statb.com

QUEUE/STATB - your partner in data analysis, data modeling and data mining.

2010/4/9 Derek Quinlan <[hidden email]>

Hi All,

 

I have two datasets that I would like to combine (i.e. using the add variables merge).

Most of the variable names are common between the datasets.

 

I would like to add a prefix to each dataset prior to merging that would allow me to get past the repeating variable name problem.

 

Is there an easy way to do this? Or am I stuck manually adding the prefixes to 800+ variable names?

 

Derek

 

 

 

--
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
Research Project Coordinator
Psychology Lecturer
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


Mailing Address:
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
The University of Western Ontario
Westminster Hall, Suite 326E
London, ON  
N6A 3K7

[John F Hall]

Another trick if you haven't got too many variables would be to use rename for all the vars in one file, then merge them.  A lot easier if they all begin with v.... and you use positional variable names.  Not sure if you can do it it Word, but (for the British Social Attitudes series)I used to use EDT on the Vax in column mode and strip out columns to convert mnemonics to positional names (which are far easier to use with the questionnaire) and also to reverse the rename for users who prefer mnemonics.  I don't have the original syntax from 1986, but here's an example from the 2002 European Social Survey (copied from a slide so the colours are funny)  Only trouble is, to change back, the original variable names have to be listed in full!

 

 

rename variables

(tvtot to pplhlp = a1 to a10)

(dscrrce to dscroth  = c17_1 to c17_10)

(dscrdk to dscrna =  c17_dk, c17_ref, c17_nap, c17_na)

 

----- Original Message -----

From: [hidden email]

To: [hidden email]

Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 4:59 PM

Subject: Adding a prefix to all variable names

Hi All,

 

I have two datasets that I would like to combine (i.e. using the add variables merge).

Most of the variable names are common between the datasets.

 

I would like to add a prefix to each dataset prior to merging that would allow me to get past the repeating variable name problem.

 

Is there an easy way to do this? Or am I stuck manually adding the prefixes to 800+ variable names?

 

Derek

 

 

 

--
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
Research Project Coordinator
Psychology Lecturer
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


Mailing Address:
Dr. Derek J. Quinlan
The University of Western Ontario
Westminster Hall, Suite 326E
London, ON  
N6A 3K7