SPSSX Discussion

Retrieving original varaible sequence

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John F Hall

Retrieving original varaible sequence

Pure laziness on my part, but I’ve downloaded the *.sav file for the NORC GSS 2008. The variables are in alphabetical order: is there a way to return them to the original questionnaire order? That way, if I have the questionnaire in front of me I can use it as documentation etc.

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

Art Kendall

Re: Retrieving original varaible sequence

SORT VARIABLES

SORT VARIABLES [BY] {NAME          } [({A})}
                    {TYPE          }   {D}
                    {FORMAT        }
                    {LABEL         }
                    {VALUES        }
                    {MISSING       }
                    {MEASURE       }
                    {ROLE          }
                    {COLUMNS       }
                    {ALIGNMENT     }
                    {ATTRIBUTE name}

Is there anything about the variables names that would work with SORT variables.

Do you have another file with the variables in the desired order? APPLY DICTIONARY

Are there parts of the variable name the could be sorted it it were parsed? DISPLAY cut-and-paste edit in a text editor so you would have a new string you could paste in to something like MATCH files ... / KEEP = that string

Is the original variable name embedded at one end or the other of the label?

Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants

On 5/24/2013 9:43 AM, John F Hall [via SPSSX Discussion] wrote:

Pure laziness on my part, but I’ve downloaded the *.sav file for the NORC GSS 2008. The variables are in alphabetical order: is there a way to return them to the original questionnaire order? That way, if I have the questionnaire in front of me I can use it as documentation etc.

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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Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants

Albert-Jan Roskam

Re: Retrieving original varaible sequence

In reply to this post by John F Hall

I addition to Art's reply:

use e.g. GET FILE = 'survey.sav' / KEEP = <variable names in desired order> ALL.

to reorder the variable names as desired. The ALL keyword is just in case you (like me) forget one or more variables.

You can do the same trick with ADD FILES, MATCH FILES, SAVE OUTFILE, etc.

Regards,
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: John F Hall <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 3:41 PM
Subject: [SPSSX-L] Retrieving original varaible sequence

Pure laziness on my part, but I’ve downloaded the *.sav file for the NORC GSS 2008. The variables are in alphabetical order: is there a way to return them to the original questionnaire order? That way, if I have the questionnaire in front of me I can use it as documentation etc.

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

Jon K Peck

Re: Retrieving original variable sequence

In reply to this post by John F Hall

If you sorted the variables in Statistics, you had the option to retain the input variable order as a custom attribute, and you can sort on it to put that order back.

If the data came alphabetically and they were smart, they would have included the questionnaire order as a custom attribute, and you can sort on it.

It's also possible that the variables are actually in questionnaire order, but your preference settings are displaying it alphabetically. If so, you can change this in Edit > Options > General.

Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
phone: 720-342-5621

From: John F Hall <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email],
Date: 05/24/2013 07:45 AM
Subject: [SPSSX-L] Retrieving original varaible sequence
Sent by: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

John F Hall (Mr)

[Retired academic survey researcher]

Email: johnfhall@...

Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

SPSS start page: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com/spss-without-tears.html

John F Hall

Re: Retrieving original varaible sequence

In reply to this post by John F Hall

Jaesok

Thanks for this. I tried John Lemon’s suggestion from the SPSS-X list, but the new order is still mainly alphabetical and is nothing like the original question order.

Looking at the questionnaire, it’s not the easiest document to work from as it’s in a CAPI format and seems to exist in three versions. It should be quite straightforward to re-arrange the variables in the correct order, but it will be tedious and time-consuming. A better solution for tutorial purposes will be to copy/paste screenshots, questionnaire items and extracts from SPSS output to a worksheet as and when needed.

Incidentally, why are all the variable and value labels in UPPER CASE? They really are ugly to look at and sometimes difficult to read. Is it because you are using the same setup syntax from years ago? Mixed case is much easier on the eye: I have already done this for the 1989 British Social Attitudes survey and shall certainly change the labels to mixed case in any variables I use for tutorial purposes.

John

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

From: Jaesok Son [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: 24 May 2013 20:37
To: '[hidden email]'
Subject: RE: Retrieving original varaible sequence

Dear John F. Hall:

Hello. This is Jaesok at the GSS project. Regarding your question, unfortunately, there is no simple way of reordering variables in the data file. You can download the questionnaires from the GSS website (http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/Publications/GSS+Questionnaires/).

Best,

Jaesok

From: John F Hall [[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 8:43 AM
To: commhelp
Subject: Retrieving original varaible sequence

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