Syntax for 'Do if Var contains 'STRING X' ?

[Tom1234]

I've searched high and low and read all of the syntax reference documents with no success,
I know you can replace a string within a variable via REPLACE (page 337 of the syntax ref that I have)
But I can't find any reference to a way of using part of a string variable as an argument in a do if statement.
Essentially I'm trying to achieve what this pseudo code says:

DO IF (CarName CONTAINS 'Honda').
COMPUTE CarType = 1.
ELSE IF (CarName CONTAINS 'Nissan').
COMPUTE CarType = 2.
ELSE.
COMPUTE CarType = 3.
END IF.

Is there a way of doing this? I am basically looking for a keyword/piece of syntax that would act in the same way that the LIKE keyword works in SQL or the StringVar.Contains("Something") from Visual basic.
Most of you have years of experience and have worked with SPSS probably since before I was a twinkle in my father's eye, so I'd appreciate very much your help.

[Bruce Weaver]

Try this:

DO IF CHAR.INDEX(CarName,'Honda') GT 0.
COMPUTE CarType = 1.
ELSE IF CHAR.INDEX(CarName,'Nissan') GT 0.
COMPUTE CarType = 2.
ELSE.
COMPUTE CarType = 3.
END IF.

Tom1234 wrote

I've searched high and low and read all of the syntax reference documents with no success,
I know you can replace a string within a variable via REPLACE (page 337 of the syntax ref that I have)
But I can't find any reference to a way of using part of a string variable as an argument in a do if statement.
Essentially I'm trying to achieve what this pseudo code says:

DO IF (CarName CONTAINS 'Honda').
COMPUTE CarType = 1.
ELSE IF (CarName CONTAINS 'Nissan').
COMPUTE CarType = 2.
ELSE.
COMPUTE CarType = 3.
END IF.

Is there a way of doing this? I am basically looking for a keyword/piece of syntax that would act in the same way that the LIKE keyword works in SQL or the StringVar.Contains("Something") from Visual basic.
Most of you have years of experience and have worked with SPSS probably since before I was a twinkle in my father's eye, so I'd appreciate very much your help.

[Tom1234]

Tried that on Spss 20 on windows xp, and it ran, created the variable but then failed to fill it it raised this error in the output

>Error # 4070.  Command name: END IF 
>The command does not follow an unclosed DO IF command.  Maybe the DO IF 
>command was not recognized because of an error.  Use the level-of-control 
>shown to the left of the SPSS Statistics commands to determine the range of 
>LOOPs and DO IFs. 
>Execution of this command stops.

But the syntax reference says it does....

Also the data inn the CarName contains more than just the brand, here is some:

Honda S2000
Ford Focus
Honda Civic
2002 Ford Escort
1991 Ford Orion
Citroen Xsara 2003
L Reg Ford Mondeo
Nissan Micra
Nissan Skyline GTR
Citroen Xantia

[Maguin, Eugene]

I think there's an error in your first sentence about here " . . . failed to fill it it raised . . ." but I guess you're saying that CarType remained at sysmis rather than being changed to 1 or 2 or 3.  You say there was an error; what was it??? Could it be that you did not also include a command that causes the data to be read, e.g., Execute, or any statistics command such as Frequencies?
Gene Maguin

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tom1234
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 8:26 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Syntax for 'Do if Var contains 'STRING X' ?

Tried that on Spss 20 on windows xp, and it ran, created the variable but then failed to fill it it raised this error in the output

But the syntax reference says it does....

Also the data inn the CarName contains more than just the brand, here is
some:

Honda S2000
Ford Focus
Honda Civic
2002 Ford Escort
1991 Ford Orion
Citroen Xsara 2003
L Reg Ford Mondeo
Nissan Micra
Nissan Skyline GTR
Citroen Xantia



-----

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[David Marso]

Bruce's syntax looks fine.
Maybe you aren't running the entire block of code?
I'm not sure what "Also the data inn the CarName contains more than just the brand, here is some:" has to do with anything.
The key concept here is the INDEX function.
Grok that!

Tom1234 wrote

Tried that on Spss 20 on windows xp, and it ran, created the variable but then failed to fill it it raised this error in the output

>Error # 4070.  Command name: END IF 
>The command does not follow an unclosed DO IF command.  Maybe the DO IF 
>command was not recognized because of an error.  Use the level-of-control 
>shown to the left of the SPSS Statistics commands to determine the range of 
>LOOPs and DO IFs. 
>Execution of this command stops.

But the syntax reference says it does....

Also the data inn the CarName contains more than just the brand, here is some:

Honda S2000
Ford Focus
Honda Civic
2002 Ford Escort
1991 Ford Orion
Citroen Xsara 2003
L Reg Ford Mondeo
Nissan Micra
Nissan Skyline GTR
Citroen Xantia

[Tom1234]

I figured out what wrong, when the index is called it is case sensitive, where much of the data is entered by hand and not always in the same manner, so I used this is:

DO IF CHAR.INDEX(lower(CarName), 'honda' )GT 0.
COMPUTE CarType = 1. 

(Thanks to Taras Koniukhov for that one)

Oh and David, as the first time I ran the script it didn't work I thought perhaps it was searching for the string on it's own etc. so I posted some data here to make sure that wasn't an issue.
And yes I was running the entire block of code.

[veljanin]

Try this, works for me!

COMPUTE CarType =0.
IF (CHAR.INDEX(CarName ,'Honda')) CarType =1.
IF (CHAR.INDEX(CarName ,'Nissan')) CarType =2.
EXECUTE.



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[veljanin]

Hey you can try this:

COMPUTE CarType=0.
IF (INDEX(CarName ,'Honda')>0) CarType =1.
IF (INDEX(CarName ,'Nissan')>0) CarType =2.
EXECUTE.

Basically, if CarName contains the word specified in brackets, the INDEX
syntax should yield "true", i.e. 1.

Veljko



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