That's a good question. My first response was CSV but I think there is a
CODEBOOK command that creates a codebook in SPSS. I don't find that
syntax in the PSPP manual. Being able to read the output that command
would be handy.
But I think that command just creates a table in the SPV output format
and I imagine it would be difficult to read. Here's a blog showing the
output: https://www.theanalysisfactor.com/codebook-spss/
If PSPP had a function (even an external utility) to create a blank CSV
codebook for a dataset that could be filled in and imported, that would
probably be an easier solution for this use-case than creating syntax.
Although, with experience, the syntax route is perfectly workable. But
as soon as the Windows GUI version of SPSS came out ~30 years ago, most
of the students and younger associates I've dealt with have avoided
syntax like the plague...
-Alan
On 1/21/2022 12:29 PM, Ben Pfaff wrote:
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>
<mailto: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>
<mailto:marek.lud...@fh-potsdam.de>; pspp-users@gnu.org
*Cc:* Katja Behrndt <katja.behr...@fh-potsdam.de>
<mailto: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
--
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
