SPSSX Discussion

match file with string variable

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Maurice Vergeer

match file with string variable

dear list members

I have a problem with matching two files. The key-variable is a string, but they do not match up, even though the resulting data set doesn't show any differences between the values of key variables. But they are: sorting them and comparing them with lag shows they are not equal, but I do not understand how they differ. The first key variable is originally read from a text file while th other one originates from excel xlsx.
Key variable is formatted A18.

syntax example:
match files file =*/file = file2 / by key.

Example of how the new data set looks like:
var1 var2 var3 var5 var5
111   343 123 aaa    .
   .      .        .     aaa   123
111   343 123 bbb    .
   .      .        .     bbb 123
111   343 123 ccc    .
   .      .        .     ccc 123
111   343 123 ddd    .
   .      .        .     ddd 123

I encountered this before. Back then it was a small file, having resolved it in another way. But this one's too large.

thanks in advance.
Maurice

--

___________________________________________________________________
Maurice Vergeer
Department of communication, Radboud University (www.ru.nl)
PO Box 9104, NL-6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Visiting Professor Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea

Recent publications:
-Vergeer, M., Eisinga, R. & Franses, Ph.H. (forthcoming). Supply and demand effects in television viewing. A time series analysis. Communications - The European Journal of Communication Research.
-Vergeer, M. Lim, Y.S. Park, H.W. (forthcoming). Mediated Relations: New Methods to study Online Social Capital. Asian Journal of Communication.
-Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Sams, S. (forthcoming). Online social networks and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new campaign tool and a new campaign style. Party Politics.
-Pleijter, A., Hermans, L. & Vergeer, M. (forthcoming). Journalists and journalism in the Netherlands. In D. Weaver & L. Willnat, The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

Webspace
www.mauricevergeer.nl
http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/
www.journalisteninhetdigitaletijdperk.nl
maurice.vergeer (skype)
___________________________________________________________________

Maguin, Eugene

Re: match file with string variable

Maurice,

The example data, if it's intended to be that, is not helpful. At all. So, time for the problem drill.

1) You might swear the key variable is A18 but is that how spss reports it to be? The same in both files?

2) when you execute the match files, do you get any errors or warnings of absolutely any kind?

3) post some true example data from file=* and file=2 and the result. Label which variable is the key in example data set..

Gene Maguin

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Maurice Vergeer
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 5:41 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: match file with string variable

David Marso

Re: match file with string variable

Administrator

In reply to this post by Maurice Vergeer

Maurice,
Need to list the key variable too if we are to be of any help.
other than that: are there leading blanks in the key variable? That will cause the MATCH to fail.
Perhaps list the first 50 resulting cases so we can see what's up.
HTH, David

Maurice Vergeer wrote

dear list members

I have a problem with matching two files. The key-variable is a string, but
they do not match up, even though the resulting data set doesn't show any
differences between the values of key variables. But they are: sorting them
and comparing them with lag shows they are not equal, but I do not
understand how they differ. The first key variable is originally read from a
text file while th other one originates from excel xlsx.
Key variable is formatted A18.

syntax example:
match files file =*/file = file2 / by key.

Example of how the new data set looks like:
var1 var2 var3 var5 var5
111 343 123 aaa .
. . . aaa 123
111 343 123 bbb .
. . . bbb 123
111 343 123 ccc .
. . . ccc 123
111 343 123 ddd .
. . . ddd 123

I encountered this before. Back then it was a small file, having resolved it
in another way. But this one's too large.

thanks in advance.
Maurice

--

___________________________________________________________________
Maurice Vergeer
Department of communication, Radboud University (www.ru.nl)
PO Box 9104, NL-6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Visiting Professor Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea

Recent publications:
-Vergeer, M., Eisinga, R. & Franses, Ph.H. (forthcoming). Supply and demand
effects in television viewing. A time series analysis. *Communications - The
European Journal of Communication Research*.
-Vergeer, M. Lim, Y.S. Park, H.W. (forthcoming). Mediated Relations: New
Methods to study Online Social Capital. Asian Journal of Communication.
-Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Sams, S. (forthcoming). Online social networks
and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new
campaign tool and a new campaign style. Party Politics.
-Pleijter, A., Hermans, L. & Vergeer, M. (forthcoming). Journalists and
journalism in the Netherlands. In D. Weaver & L. Willnat, The Global
Journalist in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

Webspace
www.mauricevergeer.nl
http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/
www.journalisteninhetdigitaletijdperk.nl
maurice.vergeer (skype)
___________________________________________________________________

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Maurice Vergeer

Re: match file with string variable

On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 07:05, David Marso <[hidden email]> wrote:

Maurice,
Need to list the key variable too if we are to be of any help.
other than that: are there leading blanks in the key variable? That will
cause the MATCH to fail.
Perhaps list the first 50 resulting cases so we can see what's up.
HTH, David

Maurice Vergeer wrote:
>
> dear list members
>
> I have a problem with matching two files. The key-variable is a string,
> but
> they do not match up, even though the resulting data set doesn't show any
> differences between the values of key variables. But they are: sorting
> them
> and comparing them with lag shows they are not equal, but I do not
> understand how they differ. The first key variable is originally read from
> a
> text file while th other one originates from excel xlsx.
> Key variable is formatted A18.
>
> syntax example:
> match files file =*/file = file2 / by key.
>
> Example of how the new data set looks like:
> var1 var2 var3 var5 var5
> 111 343 123 aaa .
> . . . aaa 123
> 111 343 123 bbb .
> . . . bbb 123
> 111 343 123 ccc .
> . . . ccc 123
> 111 343 123 ddd .
> . . . ddd 123
>
> I encountered this before. Back then it was a small file, having resolved
> it
> in another way. But this one's too large.
>
>
> thanks in advance.
> Maurice
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
> Maurice Vergeer
> Department of communication, Radboud University (www.ru.nl)
> PO Box 9104, NL-6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands
>
> Visiting Professor Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea
>
> Recent publications:
> -Vergeer, M., Eisinga, R. & Franses, Ph.H. (forthcoming). Supply and
> demand
> effects in television viewing. A time series analysis. *Communications -
> The
> European Journal of Communication Research*.
> -Vergeer, M. Lim, Y.S. Park, H.W. (forthcoming). Mediated Relations: New
> Methods to study Online Social Capital. Asian Journal of Communication.
> -Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Sams, S. (forthcoming). Online social
> networks
> and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new
> campaign tool and a new campaign style. Party Politics.
> -Pleijter, A., Hermans, L. & Vergeer, M. (forthcoming). Journalists and
> journalism in the Netherlands. In D. Weaver & L. Willnat, The Global
> Journalist in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.
>
> Webspace
> www.mauricevergeer.nl
> http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/
> www.journalisteninhetdigitaletijdperk.nl
> maurice.vergeer (skype)
> ___________________________________________________________________
>

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___________________________________________________________________
Maurice Vergeer
Department of communication, Radboud University (www.ru.nl)
PO Box 9104, NL-6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Visiting Professor Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea

Recent publications:
-Vergeer, M., Eisinga, R. & Franses, Ph.H. (forthcoming). Supply and demand effects in television viewing. A time series analysis. Communications - The European Journal of Communication Research.
-Vergeer, M. Lim, Y.S. Park, H.W. (forthcoming). Mediated Relations: New Methods to study Online Social Capital. Asian Journal of Communication.
-Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Sams, S. (forthcoming). Online social networks and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new campaign tool and a new campaign style. Party Politics.
-Pleijter, A., Hermans, L. & Vergeer, M. (forthcoming). Journalists and journalism in the Netherlands. In D. Weaver & L. Willnat, The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

Webspace
www.mauricevergeer.nl
http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/
www.journalisteninhetdigitaletijdperk.nl
maurice.vergeer (skype)
___________________________________________________________________

Rick Oliver-3

Re: match file with string variable

As long as the defined lengths of the strings are the same, trailing spaces in the values shouldn't matter. In fact, all string values are right-padded with spaces to the defined length.

But for comparison purposes "string"="string ".

Leading spaces, however, do matter.

From: Maurice Vergeer <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Date: 06/29/2011 06:38 PM
Subject: Re: match file with string variable
Sent by: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

Dear David and Gene,

problem found: trailing spaces.
I already had forced the key variables to the same length. Otherwise it wouldn't or at least shouldn't match. I received no errors, obviously.

Strange though that the traliling spaces even exist. Data downloaded using Twitter's API. Another thing to worry about when using API's.

thanks for the help.
Maurice

On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 07:05, David Marso <david.marso@...> wrote:
Maurice,
Need to list the key variable too if we are to be of any help.
other than that: are there leading blanks in the key variable? That will
cause the MATCH to fail.
Perhaps list the first 50 resulting cases so we can see what's up.
HTH, David

Maurice Vergeer wrote:
>
> dear list members
>
> I have a problem with matching two files. The key-variable is a string,
> but
> they do not match up, even though the resulting data set doesn't show any
> differences between the values of key variables. But they are: sorting
> them
> and comparing them with lag shows they are not equal, but I do not
> understand how they differ. The first key variable is originally read from
> a
> text file while th other one originates from excel xlsx.
> Key variable is formatted A18.
>
> syntax example:
> match files file =*/file = file2 / by key.
>
> Example of how the new data set looks like:
> var1 var2 var3 var5 var5
> 111 343 123 aaa .
> . . . aaa 123
> 111 343 123 bbb .
> . . . bbb 123
> 111 343 123 ccc .
> . . . ccc 123
> 111 343 123 ddd .
> . . . ddd 123
>
> I encountered this before. Back then it was a small file, having resolved
> it
> in another way. But this one's too large.
>
>
> thanks in advance.
> Maurice
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
> Maurice Vergeer
> Department of communication, Radboud University (www.ru.nl)
> PO Box 9104, NL-6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands
>
> Visiting Professor Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea
>
> Recent publications:
> -Vergeer, M., Eisinga, R. & Franses, Ph.H. (forthcoming). Supply and
> demand
> effects in television viewing. A time series analysis. *Communications -
> The
> European Journal of Communication Research*.
> -Vergeer, M. Lim, Y.S. Park, H.W. (forthcoming). Mediated Relations: New
> Methods to study Online Social Capital. Asian Journal of Communication.
> -Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Sams, S. (forthcoming). Online social
> networks
> and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new
> campaign tool and a new campaign style. Party Politics.
> -Pleijter, A., Hermans, L. & Vergeer, M. (forthcoming). Journalists and
> journalism in the Netherlands. In D. Weaver & L. Willnat, The Global
> Journalist in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.
>
> Webspace
> www.mauricevergeer.nl
> http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/
> www.journalisteninhetdigitaletijdperk.nl
> maurice.vergeer (skype)
> ___________________________________________________________________
>

--
View this message in context: http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/match-file-with-string-variable-tp4536848p4536909.html
Sent from the SPSSX Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
LISTSERV@... (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

--
___________________________________________________________________
Maurice Vergeer
Department of communication, Radboud University (www.ru.nl)
PO Box 9104, NL-6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Visiting Professor Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea

Recent publications:
-Vergeer, M., Eisinga, R. & Franses, Ph.H. (forthcoming). Supply and demand effects in television viewing. A time series analysis. Communications - The European Journal of Communication Research.
-Vergeer, M. Lim, Y.S. Park, H.W. (forthcoming). Mediated Relations: New Methods to study Online Social Capital. Asian Journal of Communication.
-Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Sams, S. (forthcoming). Online social networks and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new campaign tool and a new campaign style. Party Politics.
-Pleijter, A., Hermans, L. & Vergeer, M. (forthcoming). Journalists and journalism in the Netherlands. In D. Weaver & L. Willnat, The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

Webspace
www.mauricevergeer.nl
http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/
www.journalisteninhetdigitaletijdperk.nl
maurice.vergeer (skype)
___________________________________________________________________

Jarrod Teo-2

Re: match file with string variable

In reply to this post by Maurice Vergeer

Hi Maurice,

Possible Problem

Scenario 1

From your statement:

"sorting them and comparing them with lag shows they are not equal, but I do not understand how they differ."

I am assuming that you have checked for duplicates entries and had saved the file after removing the duplicates.

If you have not saved the file after removing the duplicates, please do so. Please note that a blank cell is treated as a valid entry for a string variable which means it will also be considered as a duplicated entry.

Scenario 2

All files to be matched are to be saved as SPSS files first. I am assuming that you had done so.

Scenario 3

All SPSS files need to be sorted in ascending order before! any matching takes place.

I will do the following:

Save both files as SPSS files.
Remove all duplicate entries of the key variable(s) and sort the key variable(s) in ascending order. (NOTE: THIS MIGHT REMOVE THOSE ENTRIES IN THE KEY VARIABLES THAT ARE BLANK. ENSURE THAT THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT BECAUSE REMOVING DUPLICATES IN THE KEY VARIABLE(S) WILL REMOVE THESE ENTRIES WITH A BLANK VALUE IN THE KEY VARIABLE(S)).
I am not sure if the width of a string key variable will affect matching but if it affect add files, please format both string variables to the same width. I am not sure because in data cleaning, I will always ensure that I am dealing with numerical variables wherever possible because they are more valuable in Statistical analysis than string variables.
Save the changes.
Carry out matching

Warmest Regards

Dorraj Oet

Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:41:18 +0900
From: [hidden email]
Subject: match file with string variable
To: [hidden email]

dear list members

I have a problem with matching two files. The key-variable is a string, but they do not match up, even though the resulting data set doesn't show any differences between the values of key variables. But they are: sorting them and comparing them with lag shows they are not equal, but I do not understand how they differ. The first key variable is originally read from a text file while th other one originates from excel xlsx.
Key variable is formatted A18.

syntax example:
match files file =*/file = file2 / by key.

Example of how the new data set looks like:
var1 var2 var3 var5 var5
111   343 123 aaa    .
   .      .        .     aaa   123
111   343 123 bbb    .
   .      .        .     bbb 123
111   343 123 ccc    .
   .      .        .     ccc 123
111   343 123 ddd    .
   .      .        .     ddd 123

I encountered this before. Back then it was a small file, having resolved it in another way. But this one's too large.

thanks in advance.
Maurice

--

___________________________________________________________________
Maurice Vergeer
Department of communication, Radboud University (www.ru.nl)
PO Box 9104, NL-6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Visiting Professor Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea

Recent publications:
-Vergeer, M., Eisinga, R. & Franses, Ph.H. (forthcoming). Supply and demand effects in television viewing. A time series analysis. Communications - The European Journal of Communication Research.
-Vergeer, M. Lim, Y.S. Park, H.W. (forthcoming). Mediated Relations: New Methods to study Online Social Capital. Asian Journal of Communication.
-Vergeer, M., Hermans, L., & Sams, S. (forthcoming). Online social networks and micro-blogging in political campaigning: The exploration of a new campaign tool and a new campaign style. Party Politics.
-Pleijter, A., Hermans, L. & Vergeer, M. (forthcoming). Journalists and journalism in the Netherlands. In D. Weaver & L. Willnat, The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

Webspace
www.mauricevergeer.nl
http://blog.mauricevergeer.nl/
www.journalisteninhetdigitaletijdperk.nl
maurice.vergeer (skype)
___________________________________________________________________

Jon K Peck

Re: match file with string variable

In reply to this post by Rick Oliver-3

Right. The problem couldn't be trailing blanks, but it could be nonprinting characters such as tabs or the popular French non-breaking space character that look like spaces and are different between the two files. If you really want to figure out what the problem was, change the variable formats to A36. Then you can see the numerical codes for those "blanks". A true blank would be hex 20. In code page mode, a non-breaking space would be A0.

Regards,

Jon Peck
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
new phone: 720-342-5621

From: Rick Oliver/Chicago/IBM@IBMUS
To: [hidden email]
Date: 06/29/2011 06:14 PM
Subject: Re: [SPSSX-L] match file with string variable
Sent by: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>