Came across a new problem yesterday: never seen this before. It hasn’t stopped me working on the data as I have backup copies and workarounds, but I’m intrigued as to possible causes. I have working versions of a *.sav file from the 1989 British Social Attitudes survey, but I wanted to add some variables not included in my teaching files. When I ran a check on the full version I got:
GET
FILE='E:\bsa89\gb8901.sav'.
DATASET NAME DataSet9 WINDOW=FRONT.
freq partyid2.
Frequencies
[DataSet9] E:\bsa89\gb8901.sav
Command: freq Incomplete (truncated) SPSS Statistics data file: E:\bsa89\gb8901.sav (DATA1205) Execution of this command stops. |
Command: freq Input error when reading a case. |
Any changes made to the working file since 25-MAY-2013 07:30:17 have been lost.
The time now is 07:36:20.
OK, so back to raw data file:
data list file 'e:\bsa89\bsa89.txt'
records 23
/23 v2348 48.
Data List will read 23 records from e:\bsa89\bsa89.txt
Variable Rec Start End Format
v2348 23 48 48 F1.0
DATASET ACTIVATE DataSet1.
Warning # 522
An unexpected end of file has been found in the middle of reading a case. The
partial case will be ignored. Check your input for a possible missing record.
freq v2348.
Frequencies
Warnings |
Error in FREQUENCIES command. |
Execution of this command stops. |
The FREQUENCIES command requires a variable list. Found: |
Warnings |
Text: v2348 Command: freq An undefined variable name, or a scratch or system variable was specified in a variable list which accepts only standard variables. Check spelling and verify the existence of this variable. Execution of this command stops. |
These jobs have always worked before. File bsa89.txt is a conversion (Courier fixed width) of a file bsa89.dat (Times New Roman) supplied by the UK Data Service at Essex in 2002 which my then computer thought was a WordPerfect file. I needed the fixed-width font *.txt version to show how data are stored in 80-column records. When I ran the job again on the *.dat proportional spacing version, it worked perfectly.
data list file 'e:\bsa89\bsa89.dat'
records 23
/23 v2348 48.
Data List will read 23 records from e:\bsa89\bsa89.dat
Variable Rec Start End Format
v2348 23 48 48 F1.0
freq v2348.
Frequencies
Statistics |
v2348 |
N | Valid | 3025 |
Missing | 0 |
v2348 |
| Frequency | Percent | Valid Percent | Cumulative Percent |
Valid | 1 | 1195 | 39.5 | 39.5 | 39.5 |
2 | 1016 | 33.6 | 33.6 | 73.1 |
3 | 335 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 84.2 |
4 | 74 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 86.6 |
5 | 215 | 7.1 | 7.1 | 93.7 |
6 | 26 | .9 | .9 | 94.6 |
8 | 164 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 100.0 |
Total | 3025 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |
Any suggestions as to what to look for and how to find it?
John F Hall (Mr)
[Retired academic survey researcher]
Email: [hidden email]
Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com
SPSS start page: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com/spss-without-tears.html
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