SPSSX Discussion

Indexing macro variables

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M-24

Indexing macro variables

Hi - I've got two questions:

1) Is there a way to use the macrovars !cat1 to !cat3 in the loop below?

I've tried several combinations of !CONCAT & !EVAL (to get something similar to SAS's &&x&i).

2) I understand there are no 'global' macro variable in SPSS. Any trick around this?

Thanks for any pointers.

-------------

SET MPRINT ON.

DEFINE !test()
!LET !cat1 = 15
!LET !cat2 = 25
!LET !cat3 = 25
!LET !nCat = 3

!DO !i = 1 !TO !nCat
COMPUTE !CONCAT(N,!cat,!i) = 0.
COMPUTE !CONCAT(N,!CONCAT(!cat,!i)) = 0.
!DOEND

!ENDDEFINE.

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Spousta Jan

Re: Indexing macro variables

Hi M,

1) The old-fashioned SPSS way may be:

SET MPRINT ON.

DEFINE test()

!LET !indices = "15 25 35"

!DO !i !in (!indices)

COMPUTE !CONCAT("N",!i) = 0.

!DOEND

execute.

!ENDDEFINE.

test.

The new way uses Python:

BEGIN PROGRAM PYTHON.

import spss

indices = ["15", "25", "35"]

for i in indices:

spss.Submit("COMPUTE N" + i + " = 0.")

spss.Submit("EXECUTE.")

END PROGRAM.

2) The traditional trick how to create "global" macro variables in SPSS is this:

DEFINE pi() 3.14159 !ENDDEFINE.

COMPUTE S = pi * R**2 .

COMPUTE L = A * cos(pi * B) .

exe.

As you see, it is clearly less elegant than in SAS - again my advice is to use Python if you have a new version of SPSS.

Hope this helps,

Jan

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of M
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 2:19 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Indexing macro variables

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M-24

Re: Indexing macro variables

This is helpful. Thanks Jan.

Marc.

Subject: RE: Indexing macro variables
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 10:18:46 +0100
From: [hidden email]
To: [hidden email]; [hidden email]

Hi M,

1) The old-fashioned SPSS way may be:

SET MPRINT ON.

DEFINE test()

!LET !indices = "15 25 35"
!DO !i !in (!indices)
COMPUTE !CONCAT("N",!i) = 0.
!DOEND

execute.
!ENDDEFINE.
test.

The new way uses Python:

BEGIN PROGRAM PYTHON.

import spss
indices = ["15", "25", "35"]
for i in indices:
spss.Submit("COMPUTE N" + i + " = 0.")
spss.Submit("EXECUTE.")

END PROGRAM.

2) The traditional trick how to create "global" macro variables in SPSS is this:

DEFINE pi() 3.14159 !ENDDEFINE.

COMPUTE S = pi * R**2 .
COMPUTE L = A * cos(pi * B) .
exe.

As you see, it is clearly less elegant than in SAS - again my advice is to use Python if you have a new version of SPSS.

Hope this helps,

Jan

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of M
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 2:19 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Indexing macro variables

Windows LiveT: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.

_____________

P Are you sure that you really need a print version of this message and/or its attachments? Think about nature.

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Albert-Jan Roskam

Re: Indexing macro variables

In reply to this post by M-24

Hi!

--Confusingly, !eval (spss) and %eval (sas) have different meanings.
!eval is used to run a macro within a macro.
--How should the COMPUTE statement evaluate? Can you give an example?
Currently it reads as a sophisticated way of defining a number of constants. ;-)
--The Spss macro language is not very powerful (the lack of a 'real' eval function
ia just one of the reasons). It's easier to use Python for this.

begin program.
import spss
def test (cats):
    for k, cat in enumerate(cats):
        spss.Submit("COMPUTE n%s%s = 0." % (str(cat), str(k)))
        # this evaluates as
        # compute n151 = 0
        # compute n252 = 0
        # compute n253 = 0
        # ... which is nonsensical ;-)
test (cats = [15, 25, 25])
end program.

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

From: M <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Friday, February 6, 2009 2:19:01 AM
Subject: Indexing macro variables

Hi - I've got two questions:

1) Is there a way to use the macrovars !cat1 to !cat3 in the loop below?

I've tried several combinations of !CONCAT & !EVAL (to get something similar to SAS's &&x&i).

2) I understand there are no 'global' macro variable in SPSS. Any trick around this?

Thanks for any pointers.

-------------

SET MPRINT ON.

DEFINE !test()
!LET !cat1 = 15
!LET !cat2 = 25
!LET !cat3 = 25
!LET !nCat = 3

!DO !i = 1 !TO !nCat
COMPUTE !CONCAT(N,!cat,!i) = 0.
COMPUTE !CONCAT(N,!CONCAT(!cat,!i)) = 0.
!DOEND

!ENDDEFINE.

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