SPSS String Trouble

[Sarah T]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble with some data manipulation. I have several string variables in my dataset. For many cases, the data takes on the form of "Other: abcdefg". I'd like to delete everything after 'Other', so any response starting with 'Other' only include that information (not the 'abcdefg').

I'm trying to do this with an RTRIM function, but I can't get it to work.

I first tried-

string newvar (a200).
COMPUTE newvar=rtrim(oldvar,"Other").
exe.

However, the error message that I'm getting and what I am reading seems to suggest that what I want to trim after must be just 1 character.

I can't use the ":" after 'Other' as there are some responses in my dataset that actually include ":" and I want to keep those. (for example, there may be responses like "blah blah: blah" that aren't preceded by 'Other' and thus I want to keep.

Help!

[Sarah T]

Hi all,

I actually figured it out-- using 'other' as my 'index'-- thanks to Raynald's great spss tools page. Now to figure out how to quickly loop this through all of my variables.

Sarah

[David Marso]

Yes INDEX is likely the most effective approach.
"Now to figure out how to quickly loop this through all of my variables"
See DO REPEAT .

Sarah T wrote

Hi all,

I actually figured it out-- using 'other' as my 'index'-- thanks to Raynald's great spss tools page. Now to figure out how to quickly loop this through all of my variables.

Sarah

[John F Hall]

Without knowing exactly what your data represent, my initial reaction is to
ask why you are using string variables?  SPSS works much more quickly with
numeric variables and you can always use the variable and value labels for
your "strings".


John F Hall (Mr)
[retired academic survey researcher]

Email:    [hidden email]
Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com




-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
David Marso
Sent: 07 January 2013 07:33
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: SPSS String Trouble

Yes INDEX is likely the most effective approach.
"Now to figure out how to quickly loop this through all of my variables"
See DO REPEAT .


Sarah T wrote
> Hi all,
>
> I actually figured it out-- using 'other' as my 'index'-- thanks to
> Raynald's great spss tools page. Now to figure out how to quickly loop
> this through all of my variables.
>
> Sarah





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[David Marso]

Rereading your post:
string newvar (a200).
Please tell me you are not serious!
--

Sarah T wrote

Hi all,

I'm having trouble with some data manipulation. I have several string variables in my dataset. For many cases, the data takes on the form of "Other: abcdefg". I'd like to delete everything after 'Other', so any response starting with 'Other' only include that information (not the 'abcdefg').

I'm trying to do this with an RTRIM function, but I can't get it to work.

I first tried-

string newvar (a200).
COMPUTE newvar=rtrim(oldvar,"Other").
exe.

However, the error message that I'm getting and what I am reading seems to suggest that what I want to trim after must be just 1 character.

I can't use the ":" after 'Other' as there are some responses in my dataset that actually include ":" and I want to keep those. (for example, there may be responses like "blah blah: blah" that aren't preceded by 'Other' and thus I want to keep.

Help!

[Art Kendall]

Without more information about you data it is difficult to be more specific.
do you have a set of string variables that could have the same response values?
Is you data entered manually so there might be variations for spelling, spacing, capitalization?
look up the commands below and see if something like this would help.
autorecode strvar1 to strvar5 into midvar1 to midvar5.
and its group option.
then
recode midvar1 to midvar5 (18 thru 44 = 98)(else=copy) into newvar to newvar5.
add value labels newvar1 to newvar5  98 'collapsed others'.


On 1/6/2013 8:31 PM, Sarah T wrote:

Hi all,

I'm having trouble with some data manipulation. I have several string
variables in my dataset. For many cases, the data takes on the form of
"Other: abcdefg". I'd like to delete everything after 'Other', so any
response starting with 'Other' only include that information (not the
'abcdefg').

I'm trying to do this with an RTRIM function, but I can't get it to work.

I first tried-

/string newvar (a200).
COMPUTE newvar=rtrim(oldvar,"Other").
exe./

However, the error message that I'm getting and what I am reading seems to
suggest that what I want to trim after must be just 1 character.

I can't use the ":" after 'Other' as there are some responses in my dataset
that actually include ":" and I want to keep those. (for example, there may
be responses like "blah blah: blah" that aren't preceded by 'Other' and thus
I want to keep.

Help!



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===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD