SPSS

[Flynn, Barbara (Computing Services)]

Hi there

 

I am currently trying to assist a student who is trying to enter data within SPSS using the Chinese language.  However, when the data is entered nothing appears on screen.  

 

I have checked the SPSS resolutions and support, but have not been able to find anything to assist.

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Barbara

 

------------------------------------------------------

Barbara Flynn

Computing Services Department

Brownlow Hill

 

Tel: [phone]

Email: [hidden email]

 

 

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[Peck, Jon]

SPSS is fully able to handle Chinese text, although the exact capabilities depend on the SPSS version and the Windows configuration (assuming that this is on Windows).  There are various settings that are relevant to this, starting with whether you have installed the necessary operating system language support.  You will see this in the Control Panel Regional Options/Languages.  There is a checkbox "Install files for East Asian languages" (exact wording varies with different Windows versions).

Best results are obtained if you then choose Chinese in the Regional Options dialog, but this is not necessary with SPSS 16.  Chinese text entry uses an IME (input method editor) for entry, and there are many of these.  Installing the East Asian support provides at least one for each type of Chinese.  With versions of SPSS prior to 16, if the Windows code page does not match the language, Chinese characters are destroyed by Windows before SPSS sees them.  This setting is on the Regional Options Advanced tab and is called something like "language to match the language version of the non-Unicode programs you want to use".  (This is Microsoft's way of ensuring that users will never get this to work right.)  This particular setting has moved around quite a lot in different versions of Windows, so you may see it on a different tab or referred to as the system code page.

There is a SET LOCALE command in SPSS that should be set to the appropriate Chinese locale - either Chinese(PRC) or Chinese(Taiwan) as these use different character sets (code pages).  By default, SPSS starts in the current Windows User Locale, but SET LOCALE overrides this.  Use SHOW LOCALE to make sure that the locale is appropriate.

You may also need to change the display font in the Data Editor to pick one that supports the appropriate Chinese character set (not necessary with SPSS 16).  For Simplified Chinese (PRC) you need a font that supports the script CHINESE_GB2312 such as SimHei.  For Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), you need support for CHINESE_BIG5 such as MingLiU.  Be sure to both pick the font and change the Script setting in the Font dialog to the appropriate character set.

SPSS 16 takes care of all this automatically.

HTH,
Jon Peck

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Flynn, Barbara (Computing Services)
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:25 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [SPSSX-L] SPSS

Hi there



I am currently trying to assist a student who is trying to enter data within SPSS using the Chinese language.  However, when the data is entered nothing appears on screen.



I have checked the SPSS resolutions and support, but have not been able to find anything to assist.



Any help would be much appreciated.



Thanks



Barbara



------------------------------------------------------

Barbara Flynn

Computing Services Department

Brownlow Hill



Tel: [phone]

Email: [hidden email]





=======
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

=====================
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