Gang,
I just installed SPSS Mac v13. Most of our data entry is with the
old DOS app DE-II, so they are in .SYS (SPSS/PC+) format.
When I open a .SYS file, all string variables contain either no data
(a variable with width 3) or very jumbled up data (longer variables).
For example, many of them are reversed, eg, "Mother" is displayed as
"rehtoM." Many are reversed and jumbled up: "Daughter's friend" is
displayed as "rethguaDneirf s' d".
On a side note, previous versions of SPSS Mac (v11, 10 and possibly
earlier) had a problem in which numeric variables 4 digits in length
in .SYS files were wildly incorrect when opened in SPSS Mac (very
tiny numbers displayed in scientific notation with upwards of 10 or
more decimal places). This problem appears to be corrected in v13,
but now I have this new problem with string variables that I never
had in previous versions.
Any suggestions? (BTW, I have repaired permissions, quit and
restarted SPSS, both to no avail).
In the meanwhile, I'm back to my old system of running SPSS Windows
in Virtual PC, opening each .SYS file and saving as .SAV files. I
can then open the .SAV files in SPSS Mac without any problems in the
data (that I'm aware of, at least). But this is a bit clunky of a
solution...
thanks,
Dennis
--
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Dennis R. Wahlgren, M.A.
Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health
San Diego State University
http://www.cbeach.org"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars--mere
globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere.' I too can see the stars on a
desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?"
--Richard Feynman
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