string var to numeric var with compute

[Mark Palmberg]

This syntax:

COMPUTE stringvar=
 NUMBER (newvar,F9.0).

Give me a numeric variable with format 8.2 no matter what.  I can't figure
out why?

Thanks.

Mark

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

[Oliver, Richard]

The default display format for new numeric variables is F8.2. The format argument of the Number function does not set the format of the new numeric variable; it specifies the numeric format for interpreting the string value.  The purpose of the format argument might be more apparent with a somewhat less standard "numeric" value, such as a date. Consider the following:
 
data list free /stringdate (a11).
begin data
29-Oct-2007
end data.
*convert the string to a number, based on interpreting the string as a date.
compute datevar=number(stringdate, date11).
list.
formats datevar (date11).
list.
 
You can declare the new numeric variable with a format prior to the Compute command with the Numeric command, or you can define the format after creating the variable with the Formats command.
 
 
 
________________________________

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion on behalf of Mark Palmberg
Sent: Fri 4/11/2008 8:51 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: string var to numeric var with compute



This syntax:

COMPUTE stringvar=
 NUMBER (newvar,F9.0).

Give me a numeric variable with format 8.2 no matter what.  I can't figure
out why?

Thanks.

Mark

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

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

Hi,

Before I used Dynamic Device Exchange using SAS to
pass X4ML commands to Excel*). Although getting the
code right could be quite cumbersome, it's really
handy once it's working. It allows the user to carry
out procedures in Excel (for instance, a
user-specified format for (CI95_low - CI95_up), but
even VBA macros prefdefined in Excel can be called).
Would something like this possible using SPSS/Python
in conjunction with MS Excel? I don't want to use Sax
Basic scripts, because of the 'asynchrony problem'.

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

*) see e.g.: http://www.sas-consultant.com/professional/SUGI26-Against-All-ODS-1.pdf

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

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

[Peck, Jon]

The Windows DDE technology has always been a bit fragile, so I have avoided it wherever possible.  VBA and COM are much preferable in my experience.

You can, of course, use SaxBasic to do COM calls to another app.  Prior to SPSS 16, however, invoking a SaxBasic script with the SCRIPT command resulted in asynchronous execution.  That may or may not matter if you are driving another application.

You can alternatively access the COM calls from a Python program if you have installed the win32com Python extensions.  That will run synchronously and gives access to the same COM methods.

Here is a short Python program that I happen to have lying around that manipulates Excel from within SPSS (or outside it) just to give you an idea of how you might use this.

BEGIN PROGRAM.
#move sheet to new workbook
import win32com.client
filespec = r"c:\temp\myoutput.xls"
fromfilespec = r"c:\temp\datesi18n.xls"
wblist = [filespec, fromfilespec]

e = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application")
e.DisplayAlerts = False
e.Workbooks.Add()

for w in wblist:
    wb = e.Workbooks.Open(w)
    wb.Sheets[0].Move(Before = e.Workbooks[0].Sheets[0])
    if e.Workbooks.Count > 1:
        wb.Close()

print e.Workbooks[0].Sheets.Count
END PROGRAM.

HTH,
Jon Peck

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Albert-jan Roskam
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 2:50 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [SPSSX-L] DDE session between spss and excel?

Hi,

Before I used Dynamic Device Exchange using SAS to
pass X4ML commands to Excel*). Although getting the
code right could be quite cumbersome, it's really
handy once it's working. It allows the user to carry
out procedures in Excel (for instance, a
user-specified format for (CI95_low - CI95_up), but
even VBA macros prefdefined in Excel can be called).
Would something like this possible using SPSS/Python
in conjunction with MS Excel? I don't want to use Sax
Basic scripts, because of the 'asynchrony problem'.

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

*) see e.g.: http://www.sas-consultant.com/professional/SUGI26-Against-All-ODS-1.pdf

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

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