Not able to read ancient portable fil (.por) from 1984 - Dataarcheological question

[Staffan Lindberg]

Dear list!

 

I have a very old portable file (.por) from 1984. When I try to open it in SPSS 19, I automatically trigger the Text Import Wizard. When I try to look at it with a text editor I see that the file begins with a row of diacritical (not in the English alphabet) letters. Does anyone know how to open such a file. I seem to remember that in the early days of SPSS there were some problems with portable files, fixable by some editing of the beginning string of characters in the file. Anyone remember this?

 

best

 

Staffan Lindberg

Sweden

 

 

[David Marso]

Staffan,
Using Syntax:

IMPORT FILE = "full path to file.por".

If that fails you may need to massage the file so it has 80 char record length.
Sometimes things go FUBAR when moving from one system to another.
HTH, David

--

Staffan Lindberg wrote

Dear list!



I have a very old portable file (.por) from 1984. When I try to open it in
SPSS 19, I automatically trigger the Text Import Wizard. When I try to look
at it with a text editor I see that the file begins with a row of
diacritical (not in the English alphabet) letters. Does anyone know how to
open such a file. I seem to remember that in the early days of SPSS there
were some problems with portable files, fixable by some editing of the
beginning string of characters in the file. Anyone remember this?



best



Staffan Lindberg

Sweden