If PSPP were to add a feature to import a codebook, what format should it be able to import it from?
On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 10:20 AM <am...@alanmead.org> wrote: > Yes, but variable labels aren't always that big a deal; value labels can > be more critical. You should rename/label, but it's fairly easy to remember > that V3 is sex. Good luck, however, remembering what the five responses 1, > 2, 3, 4, 5 mean... > > Elio ninja'd me last night because I spent a few minutes googling whether > there was a way to import a code book. I don't think there is, and that's a > shame. Labeling data is so important and such an improvement in the SAV > file format (over, say, SQL or CSV). > > I guess the other way to deal with this is to not use codes, in favor of > response strings, in the dataset. So, the Sex variable might have values: > 'male', 'female', 'non-binary', etc. And I guess if you had your labels in > a spreadsheet you could probably arrange to use INDEX/MATCH to replace the > codes with response strings that would be clear to anyone looking at the > data. Of course, that solves the labeling in a way, but when you import > your data into PSPP, you then have to write a bunch of syntax to change > those strings (of numeric variables like Likert responses) into numeric > values to be used in analysis. And, I guess, ideally you'd want those > numeric variables to have sensible value labels. > > -Alan > > > On 1/21/2022 11:50 AM, jhwh...@techwriteinc.com wrote: > > If I understand the issue correctly, variable labels are not being > installed when importing some Excel files into PSPP. Is this correct? > > > > Take care, > > John > > ___________________________ > > > > > > Email: jhwh...@techwriteinc.com > > > > *From:* Pspp-users <pspp-users-bounces+jhwhite=techwriteinc....@gnu.org> > <pspp-users-bounces+jhwhite=techwriteinc....@gnu.org> *On Behalf Of *Alan > Mead > *Sent:* Thursday, January 20, 2022 9:23 PM > *To:* Marek Ludwig <marek.lud...@fh-potsdam.de> > <marek.lud...@fh-potsdam.de>; pspp-users@gnu.org > *Cc:* Katja Behrndt <katja.behr...@fh-potsdam.de> > <katja.behr...@fh-potsdam.de> > *Subject:* Re: Import Codebook > > > > I find applying labels to be very time-consuming, so maybe that's bad news > for you. Maybe someone else will have a great idea. > > > > But to make it as quick as possible, I'd recommend that you generate > syntax and execute that syntax. I think that will be MUCH quicker than > individually clicking and editing these values using the graphical user > interface. > > > > A lot of people are scared of syntax, but it's not so hard. An added > advantage of doing it this way is that you easily fix an error by fixing > the syntax and re-running it. > > > > Also, if you have the information in a spreadsheet, I would try to > generate the syntax using formulas in the spreadsheet. If column A > contained the spss variable name (maybe "V1") and column B contained the > variable label, then into cell C1 I would insert: > > > > ="variable labels "&A1&" '"&B1&"'." > > > > (Note that there are single quotes, inside the double quotes, around B1 > because it's a string.) > > > > If A1 = V1 and B1 = Beschriftung then this would generate: > > > > variable labels V1 'Beschriftung'. > > > > And if you paste that into a syntax window, add the line "Execute." and > run it, it would label this variable. You could paste 200 rows of Column C, > add "Execute." and create the 200 variable labels very easily. > > > > The value labels could be done similarly but I'd have to see the > spreadsheet to devise the correct formula(s)... > > > > This page describes the syntax: > > > http://www.statsmakemecry.com/smmctheblog/using-syntax-to-assign-variable-labels-and-value-labels-in-s.html > > > > This includes my solution and suggests an alternative (that may not work > with PSPP): > > > https://www.reddit.com/r/spss/comments/mobw0z/import_excel_file_while_maintaining_variable/ > > > > Here are the relevant PSPP manual pages: > > https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/manual/html_node/VALUE-LABELS.html > > https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/manual/html_node/VARIABLE-LABELS.html > > https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/manual/html_node/MISSING-VALUES.html > > > > > > -Alan > > > > > > On 1/19/2022 9:01 AM, Marek Ludwig wrote: > > Dear All, > > we have read in a CSV dataset that we had generated from an Excel file. > Unfortunately, the codebook got lost in the process, so that the columns > for labels("Beschriftung"), value labels ("Wertelabels") and missing values > ("Fehlende Werte") are empty. Since our dataset has over 200 variables, > filling them in manually would be very time consuming. Is there an > efficient, faster solution to read in the codebook or fill in these > columns? > > I would be very grateful for a hint! > > Thanks a lot, > > Marek > > > > -- > > > > Alan D. Mead, Ph.D. > > President, Talent Algorithms Inc. > > > > science + technology = better workers > > > > https://talalg.com > > > > > > Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you > > take into account Hofstadter's Law. > > > > > > -- > > Alan D. Mead, Ph.D. > President, Talent Algorithms Inc. > > science + technology = better workers > https://talalg.com > > > Going was easy. Keep on going was hard. > > -- Ursula K. Le Guin > > > >
