SPSS error?

[D.R. Wahlgren]

Gang,

I'm using SPSS Mac v16.0.2.  I ran frequencies on a variable, and saw a value of -4 that I would like to investigate further by pulling the hardcopy of the individual's data.  If it's of any relevance, the value of -4 is defined as user-missing for this variable.

The following syntax returned no cases:

temp.

select if (q6 = -4).

list id.

The following syntax did return the case with the -4 value:

temp.

select if (q6 <= 0).

list id.

Any ideas as to why the first syntax did not work?

Thanks,

Dennis