SPSSX Discussion - Re: Retrieving original varaible sequence

Re: Retrieving original varaible sequence

Posted by John F Hall on May 25, 2013; 5:15am
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/Retrieving-original-varaible-sequence-tp5720394p5720412.html

Jaesok

Thanks for this. I tried John Lemon’s suggestion from the SPSS-X list, but the new order is still mainly alphabetical and is nothing like the original question order.

Looking at the questionnaire, it’s not the easiest document to work from as it’s in a CAPI format and seems to exist in three versions. It should be quite straightforward to re-arrange the variables in the correct order, but it will be tedious and time-consuming. A better solution for tutorial purposes will be to copy/paste screenshots, questionnaire items and extracts from SPSS output to a worksheet as and when needed.

Incidentally, why are all the variable and value labels in UPPER CASE? They really are ugly to look at and sometimes difficult to read. Is it because you are using the same setup syntax from years ago? Mixed case is much easier on the eye: I have already done this for the 1989 British Social Attitudes survey and shall certainly change the labels to mixed case in any variables I use for tutorial purposes.

John

John F Hall (Mr)

[Retired academic survey researcher]

Email: [hidden email]

Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

SPSS start page: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com/spss-without-tears.html

From: Jaesok Son [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: 24 May 2013 20:37
To: '[hidden email]'
Subject: RE: Retrieving original varaible sequence

Dear John F. Hall:

Hello. This is Jaesok at the GSS project. Regarding your question, unfortunately, there is no simple way of reordering variables in the data file. You can download the questionnaires from the GSS website (http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/Publications/GSS+Questionnaires/).

Best,