Counting the number of times a value appears across multiple variables (columns)

[Alexa]

Hi,

I am working with IBM SPSS Statistics 19 and have a question.

I have a series of many (>1000) string variables and I want to create a variable that counts the number of times a value occurs in 1 row (across each of these columns). How do I do that?

Thank-you in advance!

[Allum, Jeff]

I will be out of the office on Monday, September 19.  I will reply to your e-mail when I return on Tuesday, September 20.

Jeff
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[David Marso]

See COUNT command.

Alexa wrote

Hi,

I am working with IBM SPSS Statistics 19 and have a question.

I have a series of many (>1000) string variables and I want to create a variable that counts the number of times a value occurs in 1 row (across each of these columns). How do I do that?

Thank-you in advance!

[John F Hall]

The syntax reference has a slightly confusing example:

COUNT SVAR=V1 V2 ('male ') V3 V4 V5 ('female').

. . in which v1 to v5 are A6 format and svar will be f8.2 (by default).  The
variables in the source list must be all numeric (not your problem) or all
string.

This command will count for both 'male  ' and 'female' and svar will range
from 0 to 5, but it won't tell you how many males and how many females there
are.

Seems a pretty pointless example to me.  Why only two vars for 'male  ' and
three for 'female'?  It would be better as:

Count males = v1 v2 ('male  ')
        /females = v3 to v5 ('female')

. . . in which males will range from 0 to 2 and females from 0 to 3.  You
can always add them together later.

Not quite sure what you do if you need to pick out a substring.

John F Hall

[hidden email]
www.surveyresearch.weebly.com






-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Alexa
Sent: 17 September 2011 01:56
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Counting the number of times a value appears across multiple
variables (columns)

Hi,

I am working with IBM SPSS Statistics 19 and have a question.

I have a series of many (>1000) string variables and I want to create a
variable that counts the number of times a value occurs in 1 row (across
each of these columns). How do I do that?

Thank-you in advance!

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-value-appears-across-multiple-variables-columns-tp4812423p4812423.html
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[Art Kendall]

If you have long strings and if you want to match the _whole_ string it would involve less typing to
1) autorecode with the /group option
2) do a MULT RESPONSE with the /table option to find which strings ever occur more than once
3) if you need the counts as variables then write the series of COUNT commands.

If you need to count substrings, please post a more detailed description.  E.g., do you know ahead of time what substrings you want to count the occurrence of? Are all of the strings the same length?

Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants

On 9/16/2011 7:56 PM, Alexa wrote:

Hi,

I am working with IBM SPSS Statistics 19 and have a question.

I have a series of many (>1000) string variables and I want to create a
variable that counts the number of times a value occurs in 1 row (across
each of these columns). How do I do that?

Thank-you in advance!

--
View this message in context: http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/Counting-the-number-of-times-a-value-appears-across-multiple-variables-columns-tp4812423p4812423.html
Sent from the SPSSX Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

=====================
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===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

[David Marso]

"Not quite sure what you do if you need to pick out a substring."
See INDEX function and DO REPEAT!!.

John F Hall wrote

The syntax reference has a slightly confusing example:

COUNT SVAR=V1 V2 ('male ') V3 V4 V5 ('female').

. . in which v1 to v5 are A6 format and svar will be f8.2 (by default).  The
variables in the source list must be all numeric (not your problem) or all
string.

This command will count for both 'male  ' and 'female' and svar will range
from 0 to 5, but it won't tell you how many males and how many females there
are.

Seems a pretty pointless example to me.  Why only two vars for 'male  ' and
three for 'female'?  It would be better as:

Count males = v1 v2 ('male  ')
        /females = v3 to v5 ('female')

. . . in which males will range from 0 to 2 and females from 0 to 3.  You
can always add them together later.

Not quite sure what you do if you need to pick out a substring.

John F Hall

[hidden email]
www.surveyresearch.weebly.com






-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Alexa
Sent: 17 September 2011 01:56
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Counting the number of times a value appears across multiple
variables (columns)

Hi,

I am working with IBM SPSS Statistics 19 and have a question.

I have a series of many (>1000) string variables and I want to create a
variable that counts the number of times a value occurs in 1 row (across
each of these columns). How do I do that?

Thank-you in advance!

--
View this message in context:
http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/Counting-the-number-of-times-a
-value-appears-across-multiple-variables-columns-tp4812423p4812423.html
Sent from the SPSSX Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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[Alexa]

Thanks.

 

From: David Marso [via SPSSX Discussion] [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: September 16, 2011 7:40 PM
To: Nardelli, Alexa
Subject: Re: Counting the number of times a value appears across multiple variables (columns)

 

See COUNT command.

Alexa wrote:

Hi,

I am working with IBM SPSS Statistics 19 and have a question.

I have a series of many (>1000) string variables and I want to create a variable that counts the number of times a value occurs in 1 row (across each of these columns). How do I do that?

Thank-you in advance!

 

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