SPSS tends to be a little idiosyncratic as to what it find in the first row of an Excel file, often using the cell contents of that row to type the rest of the column. In the past I have found that putting a 'dummy' row with every cell in the first row containing the type of data you would expect in subsequent rows then it tends to work; i.e. a date for date columns, strings and numbers etc. Also formatting the columns with the type of data you expect also helps.
Best Wishes
John S. Lemon
Emeritus Computing Advisor
Please note I retired from the University on 30th June 2014
m: +44 (0) 7710 491780 | e:
[hidden email]
-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:
[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Albert-Jan Roskam
Sent: 30 July 2014 08:05
To:
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Subject: Re: Excel file scrambled in a few places on input
----- Original Message -----
> From: Art Kendall <
[hidden email]>
> To:
[hidden email]
> Cc:
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 11:56 PM
> Subject: [SPSSX-L] Excel file scrambled in a few places on input
>
> I have an excel file in which I replaced all blank cells with "blank".
> I do not have a row with variable names All variables show in
> variables view as strings.
>
> However, the data from some excel cells end up in the wrong variables
> in SPSS.
>
> When I do FREQUENCIES on V1 I find text that occurs in other cells in
> other columns.
>
> I also end up with more cases than there are rows in the excel file.
>
> Has anyone encountered this before?
>
> I am running SPSS v21.
Could you be more specific: xls, xlsx or csv?
--xls: generally ok. Usually problems are caused by Excel, not SPSS (e.g., Excel decides that disease code '01-01' should actually be 'Jan-1').
--xlsx: I avoid this like the plague. Too many xlsx related stuff on the Fixpack fixlists --character-separated values: improperly escaped values with separators in them (e.g an embedded tab)
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