Yes, but for errors we have MXERRS. I personally would like PSPP to halt
on the first error, but never on a warning.
Greetings
frans
On 11/16/19 5:42 PM, Alan Mead wrote:
This is probably known, but SPSS will stop on some errors. If the GET
DATA command fails, it will stop at the first routine that requires a
dataset. I think it will also stop on a duplicate key when merging
files by a condition.
I don't think it stops on errors like divide-by-zero (i.e., where I've
generated the D-B-Z error in a COMPUTE statement).
I think it would generate warnings if my specification didn't match
the data in a GET DATA statement, and only up to some limit. I agree
with Frans, in a large dataset, this could generate a huge number of
warnings. Missing values are a common problem. I had a problem
recently where I needed to add a BOM to UTF8 data files or else SPSS
will complain each time it reads a wide char (all because some of the
survey responses used an mdash instead of a hyphen to represent a
range, like 3-5!).
-Alan
On 11/16/2019 1:51 AM, Frans Houweling wrote:
Hi Ben,
GET DATA on csv files is the main source, like when missing values
are coded "NA" or ":".
Plus I do make the ehm occasional mistake - but as what I do wrong in
the first record I do wrong in all the following records too, I
always reach MXWARNS. I can see some justification for halting in the
case of vector index out of bounds, but other errors like divide by
zero cause no harm at all, like the GET DATA case.
So if I could decide, I would vote for continue syntax processing.
Thanks
frans
On 11/16/19 4:35 AM, Ben Pfaff wrote:
I'm a little surprised you're receiving so many warnings. Is that a
problem of its own? What's the underlying cause?
On Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 12:36 PM Frans Houweling <fhouwel...@email.it
<mailto:fhouwel...@email.it>> wrote:
Correction: syntax processing does stop - only not in the first
procedure. Bad!
frans
On 11/15/19 8:47 PM, Frans Houweling wrote:
> Hi,
> I often see this message
> "note: Warnings (n+1) exceed limit (n). Syntax processing
will be
> halted."
> Luckily, syntax processing seems to go on anyway. I think the
message
> should just say "No more warnings will be issued" and syntax
> processing should not be halted.
> I am aware SET MXWARNS=0 suppresses all warnings - but I like to
see
> at least one (or possibly one per type).
> Greetings
> frans
>
--
Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
President, Talent Algorithms Inc.
science + technology = better workers
http://www.alanmead.org
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an
invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building,
write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone,
comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch
manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for
insects."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
