SPSS

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal

(Associate Professor)
 Unit-1

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

 Unit-1

Creating and Editing a Data file in SPSS

Introduction to SPSS interface, Data view Vs Variable view, Measurement
scales (nominal, ordinal, scale), Entering data (by variable and by
case/record), importing data (from excel/csv), Editing data (inserting a
new variable or case, copy-pasting data)
8 / 28
Graphs and Charts Sessions of
Introduction to Chart Builder, Bar graphs, Line graphs, Pie charts, Box
plots, Histograms, Scatterplots, editing the charts (adding title, changing 1 hour each
font, changing axis values etc.), printing the output.
Descriptive Statistics
Frequencies, Visual display of frequencies (bar chart, histogram),
Measures of Central Tendency, Measures of Variability, Skewness,
Kurtosis.

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

The acronym “SPSS” initially stood for “Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences.” As SPSS expanded
their package to address the physical sciences and
business markets, the name changed to “Statistical
Product and Service Solutions.” In 2009 IBM
purchased SPSS and the name morphed to “IBM SPSS
Statistics.” SPSS is now such a standard in the industry Introduction to
that IBM has retained the name due to its recognizability. SPSS
No one particularly cares what the letters “SPSS” stands
for any longer.
The software was originally created by three
Stanford graduate students in the late 1960s. IBM SPSS
Statistics is simply one of the world’s largest and most
successful statistical software.

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

IBM SPSS Statistics is a complex and powerful statistical
program by any standards. Despite its size and complexity,
SPSS and IBM have created a program that is not only
powerful but is user friendly (you’re the user; the program
tries to be friendly).

You should have had at least a basic course in statistics or be

Introduction to
in the process of taking such a course. when you conduct data
SPSS
analysis with SPSS, you should have certain limited
knowledge of statistics and have access to a computer that
has the necessary resources to run SPSS.

SPSS is a costly software and to use you have to buy license

for it. However a free trial version of SPSS is available on the
website of SPSS you may download trial version for
understanding the SPSS interface.
Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor
Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor
Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor
Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor
 Variable View
Name: Rules
Type: Numeric, String etc.,
Width
Decimals
Label
Value
Missing
Column
Align
Measure
Role

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

Rules for Naming a Variable

Each variable name you use must adhere to the following rules.

• Each variable may be any length but shorter than 10 characters is usually desirable.
• It must begin with a letter or the symbols @ or $. After that any letters, numbers, a
period, or the symbols @, #, _, or $ may be used. However, the name may not end with
a period.
• All variable names must be unique; duplicates are not allowed.
• Variable names are not sensitive to upper or lower case. ID, Id, and id are all
• identical to SPSS
• Because they have a unique meaning in SPSS, certain variable names may not be used,
including: all, ne, eq, to, le, lt, by, or, gt, and, not, ge, and with.

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

The Measure column also provides a drop-down menu that allows you to select three
options based on the nature of your data: Scale, Ordinal, and Nominal.
• Scale measures have intrinsic numeric meaning that allow typical mathematical
manipulations. For instance, age is a scale variable: 16 is twice as much as 8, 4 is half as
much as 8, the sum of a 4 and 8 is 12, and so forth. Scale is the default for all numeric
variables.
• Ordinal measures have intrinsic order but mathematical manipulations are typically
meaningless. On an aggression scale of 1 to 10, someone higher on the scale is more
aggressive than someone lower on the scale, but someone who rates 4 is not twice as
aggressive as someone who rates 2.
• Nominal measures are used for identification but have no intrinsic order (lesser to
greater) such as gender, ethnicity, marital status, and most string variables. Nominal data
may be used for categorization and for a number of other statistical procedures.
Sometimes it can be difficult to choose between scale and ordinal. If so, don’t worry too
much. In all analysis, SPSS handles both ordinal and scale variables identically.

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

The Role column is designed for large data sets in which the researcher wishes to
keep track of which variables are independent variables or predictors (Input, the
default), which are dependent or criterion variables (Target), and other
functions unique to certain designs.

For most studies this column may be ignored.

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

Entering Data
There are two different ways of entering data that we will describe: by variable and by
case or subject. In different settings either method may be desirable, so we will describe
both.
ENTER DATA BY VARIABLE Click on the first empty cell under the first variable,
type the number (or word), press the Down-arrow key or Enter key, then type the
next number/word, press the Down-arrow or Enter key, and so forth. When you
finish one variable, scroll to the top of the file and enter data for the next variable in the
same way.
ENTER DATA BY CASE OR PARTICIPANT Click on the first empty cell for the
first subject under the first variable, and then type the first number/word, press the
Right arrow key or Tab key, type the next number, press the Right-arrow or Tab
key, and so forth. When you finish one participant, scroll back to the first column and
enter data for the next participant.

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

Editing Data
CHANGING A CELL VALUE Simply click on the cell of interest, type the new value, and then
hit Enter, Tab, or any of the Arrow keys.
INSERTING A NEW CASE If you wish to insert data for a new subject or case, click on the case
number above which you would like the new case to be. Then click on the insert case toolbar icon
and a new line will open and push all other cases down by exactly one line. You may then enter
data for the new subject or case.

INSERTING A NEW VARIABLE To insert a new variable, click on the variable to the right of
where you would like the new variable to be located, click on the insert-variable icon, and a new
column will open (to the left) and push all other variables exactly one column to the right. You
may then name and format the new variable and enter data in that column.

TO COPY OR CUT CELLS To copy rows or columns of data, first highlight the data you want to
copy by a click on the variable name (to highlight all entries for one variable) or click on the case
number (to highlight all the entries for one subject or case) and then use the shift and arrow keys
to highlight larger blocks of data. Once the cells you want to copy are highlighted, right-click on
the highlighted cells and (from the drop down menu) click Copy if you wish to leave the cells
where they are but put them onto the clipboard for future pasting. Click the Cut option if you wish
to delete the cells from the data editor and place them onto the clipboard.
Editing Data……
TO PASTE CELLS At first glance, pasting cells may seem simply a matter of copying the
cells you wish to paste, selecting the location where you wish to paste them, and then
clicking Edit Paste. This process is actually somewhat tricky, however, for two reasons:
(1) If you paste data into already existing cells, you will erase any data already in those
cells and (2) SPSS lets you paste data copied from one variable into another variable (this
can cause confusion if, for example, you copy data from the gender variable into the
marital variable).
TO SEARCH FOR DATA One of the handiest editing procedures is the Find function. A
click on the Edit command followed by a click on the Find option (or a click on the toolbar
icon) opens up a find & Replace screen that allows you to search for a particular word or
data value. This function is most frequently used for two different purposes:
• If you have a large file that includes names, you can quickly find a particular name that is
embedded within the file.
• If you discover errors in your data file, the search function can quickly find those errors
for correction.
Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor
Exercise on data entry, data import, creating and saving a data file in SPSS.

Using the Information/Data given in the DKA Data-1.XLSx File

➢ Set up the variables described in the DKA Data-1.XLSx file, using appropriate
variable names, variable labels, and variable values. Enter the data as given in excel
sheet.

➢ Save file as Data Set-1 <Your First Name>.Sav

➢ Create a new variable in this dataset named Education, with values of 1,2 and 3.
Create variable labels, where 1 is the 12th Std, 2 is the Under Graduate, and 3 is the
Post Graduate. Save your dataset.

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

TO MAKE PARTICIPANT IDENTIFIERS ALWAYS VISIBLE
(Just like freeze pans in excel)
When a file has many variables, it is often useful to make some of the columns (those on the
left, if you set the file up as we recommend) always visible, even when you are scrolling over
to view or enter variables along the right.
This is easy to do, once you find where to put the cursor. Near the bottom right of the
screen, look for a small area to the right of the vertical scroll bar. Drag that line to the left,
until it is immediately to the right of any variables you want to always be visible. For
example, in the grades.sav file, you might move it just to the right of the lastname
variable. Then, your file would look like this:

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

The data file is the raw data for calculating the grades in a particular class. The example consists of a single file,
used by a teacher who teaches three sections of a class with approximately 35 students in each section. From
left to right, the variables that are used in the data file are:
Variable Description
ID Six-digit student ID number
LASTNAME Last name of the student
FIRSTNAME First name of the student
GENDER Gender of the student: 1 = female, 2 = male
Ethnicity of the student: 1 = Native (Native American or Inuit), 2 = Asian (or
ETHNIC
Asian American), 3 = Black, 4 = White (non-Hispanic), 5 = Hispanic
Year in school; 1 = Frosh (1st year), 2 = Soph (2nd year), 3 = Junior (3rd year), 4
YEAR
= Senior (4th year)
Lower or upper division student: 1 = Lower (1st or 2nd year), 2 = Upper (3rd or
LOWUP
4th year)
SECTION Section of the class (1 through 3)
GPA Cumulative GPA at the beginning of the course
EXTCR Whether or not the student did the extra credit project: 1 = No, 2 = Yes
REVIEW Whether or not the student attended the review sessions: 1 = No, 2 = Yes
QUIZ1 to QUIZ5 Scores out of 10 points on five quizzes throughout the term
FINAL Final exam worth Dr.
75Kiran
points
Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor
1. Exercise on data entry, data import, creating and saving a data file in SPSS.

Using the Information/Data given in the Grades.XLXs File

➢ Set up the variables described in the grades.XLX file, using appropriate variable
names, variable labels, and variable values. Enter the data for the first 20 students
into the data file.

➢ Save file as Grades<Your First Name>.Sav

➢ Create a new variable in this dataset named school, with values of 1 and 2. Create
variable labels, where 1 is the name of a school you like, and 2 is the name of a
school you don’t like. Save your dataset with the name gradesme.sav.

➢ Using gradesme.sav, search for a student name “DENNIS”. What is his or her last
name, Year and Section?

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

2. Exercise on data entry, data import, creating and saving a data file in SPSS.

Using the Information/Data given in the Grades.XLXs File

- Create all the variable in SPSS file

- Import data from Grades.xlsx file
- Save file as “Full Data for Grades<Your First Name>.Sav”

Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor

THANK YOU!
Dr. Kiran Kumar Agrawal , Associate Professor