File format conversion for PASW Stats 17 datafile

[Paul Sillitoe]

Having finished with a fairly large SPSS v17 datafile (640 cases, uncountably large number of variable values in aggregation), I’d like to transform the datafile into a portable file format for archiving, so that it can be accessed in the future when SPSS 17 is no longer around.

 

I’d be grateful to be advised how to do this, or pointed towards a source of that information. I am aware that as well as the data values, the variable values must also be saved, but that’s about as far as my understanding of what is required goes, I’m afraid.

 

Thank you.

 

Paul Sillitoe

[Kreischer,Resha M]

I will be out of the office until November 15th. I will respond to your email upon my return.

Sincerely,

Resha

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[Albert-Jan Roskam]

Hi Paul,

I am always a big fan of .csv files. You could save the data as .csv and also save the result of DISPLAY DICTIONARY (metadata) in a csv file. If you have lots of files, the latter step might be automated.

 

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

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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?
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From: Paul Sillitoe <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:59 PM
Subject: [SPSSX-L] File format conversion for PASW Stats 17 datafile

Having finished with a fairly large SPSS v17 datafile (640 cases, uncountably large number of variable values in aggregation), I’d like to transform the datafile into a portable file format for archiving, so that it can be accessed in the future when SPSS 17 is no longer around.

 

I’d be grateful to be advised how to do this, or pointed towards a source of that information. I am aware that as well as the data values, the variable values must also be saved, but that’s about as far as my understanding of what is required goes, I’m afraid.

 

Thank you.

 

Paul Sillitoe

[Lemon, John S.]

Paul

 

I would just add that saving it as a portable format SPSS file as well would enable you to quickly reload it into a later version of SPSS

 

Best Wishes

 

John S. Lemon

DIT ( Directorate of Information Technology ) - Student Liaison Officer

University of Aberdeen

Edward Wright Building: Room G86a

Tel:  [phone]

 

DIT news for Students

 

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Albert-Jan Roskam
Sent: 10 November 2011 08:48
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: File format conversion for PASW Stats 17 datafile

 

Hi Paul,

 

I am always a big fan of .csv files. You could save the data as .csv and also save the result of DISPLAY DICTIONARY (metadata) in a csv file. If you have lots of files, the latter step might be automated.

 

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?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---

From: Paul Sillitoe <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:59 PM
Subject: [SPSSX-L] File format conversion for PASW Stats 17 datafile

Having finished with a fairly large SPSS v17 datafile (640 cases, uncountably large number of variable values in aggregation), I’d like to transform the datafile into a portable file format for archiving, so that it can be accessed in the future when SPSS 17 is no longer around.

 

I’d be grateful to be advised how to do this, or pointed towards a source of that information. I am aware that as well as the data values, the variable values must also be saved, but that’s about as far as my understanding of what is required goes, I’m afraid.

 

Thank you.

 

Paul Sillitoe

 

The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.

[David Marso]

Paul,
  I wouldn't worry about it!!!!  You apparently have been scared from the "dead big iron system file" threads.  And if worse comes to worse there is a fully documented API for reading the SPSS data format. OTOH:  Look up EXPORT in the FM.

"In most cases, saving data in portable format is no longer necessary, since SPSS Statistics
data files should be platform/operating system independent. "
....
"Variable names that exceed eight bytes are converted to unique eight-byte names—for
example, mylongrootname1, mylongrootname2, and mylongrootname3 would be converted to
mylongro, mylong_2, and mylong_3, respectively. "

I would be more worried about being able to read Output files from one version to others!!!
Better keep all that backed up in Excel!!! (or better just keep all your syntax so you can recreate it).!
HTH, David

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Paul Sillitoe wrote

Having finished with a fairly large SPSS v17 datafile (640 cases, uncountably large number of
variable values in aggregation), I'd like to transform the datafile into a portable file format for
archiving, so that it can be accessed in the future when SPSS 17 is no longer around.
I'd be grateful to be advised how to do this, or pointed towards a source of that information. I am
aware that as well as the data values, the variable values must also be saved, but that's about as
far as my understanding of what is required goes, I'm afraid.

Thank you.
Paul Sillitoe