Introduction to SPSS

Dr. V. Darling Selvi, Assistant Professor

Rani Anna Government College for Women,
Tirunelveli
 How to open SPSS
 Go to START

 Click on PROGRAMS

 Click on SPSS INC

 Click on SPSS 23.0

 The computers in the CSSCR lab typically have SPSS

on the desktop. It is a Blue box that says SPSS on the
top.
 Basic structure of SPSS
There are two different windows in SPSS
1st – Data Editor Window - shows data in two
forms
◦ Data view
◦ Variable view
2nd – Output viewer Window – shows results of
data analysis
*You must save the data editor window and
output viewer window separately.
 Data view vs. Variable view
Data view
◦ Rows are cases
◦ Columns are variables
Variable view
◦ Rows define the variables
 Name, Type, Width, Decimals, Label, Missing, etc.
 Scale – age, weight, income
 Nominal – categories that cannot be ranked (ID number)
 Ordinal – categories that can be ranked (level of satisfaction)
 SPSS Menu

 File, Edit, View, Window, Help: Similar to most windows

applications.
File - Standard options for opening, saving, printing and
exiting
Edit - Standard commands to undo, redo, cut, copy and
paste
View - Options for showing/hiding toolbars, displaying
values or their labels in Data Editor
Window - Provides option for switching between different
SPSS windows
Help – Contains SPSS help system
 Menu bar and tool bar
Move to
another active
Open files, Adjust window Statistical analyses Help menu
Graphs window
save files etc. elements Tool bar
Menu bar

File editing

Modify data

Modify
variables
 Toolbars

 Data – Used to manipulate the data; sort, merge.. etc

 Transform - Creation of new variables.

 Analyze - Heart of SPSS. This menu provides access to the

statistical procedures for analysing your data set. All the items on
the analyze menu have sub menus.

 Graphs - Provide options to create high quality plots and charts.

 Utilities - Used to display information on individual variables.

 Data View
 Two different views within the data editor in SPSS
 Data View – Used for entering, editing and modifying
data.
 Very much like an excel spreadsheet.
 Variable View
 Used to define the type of information that is entered in to
each column in data view.
 Variable View
 Variable View with a data set already loaded in SPSS:
 Rules for Defining Variable Names
 The name must begin with a letter.

 Maximum of 8 characters and no spaces.

 Names must be unique.

@ # _ or $ allowed.

A full stop can be used but not as the last character, so best
avoided.

 Thespace character and others such as * ! ? And ‘ are not

allowed.

 Names are not case sensitive so ID, id and Id are identical.

variables
SPSS Data Editor

Data View window Variable View window

cases
Manually Entering Data – Defining Variables

 In Variable View first name your variable in the Name

column
 In the Type column click on the button to reveal the
Variable type dialogue box and select the appropriate
variable type.
 Manually Entering Data – Defining Variables
 Inthe Values column Click on the button to reveal the
Values Labels dialogue box. Enter your values and
corresponding labels for the variable you are defining if
appropriate

 Define “Measure” (specific variable type e.g.

nominal/ordinal/scale)
 Directly enter the data values in Data View
 Reading in Data from Excel to SPSS
 Two options:
1 – Copy data in excel and paste directly into the Data
View screen
2 –Read in an excel file (.xls)
 Select File → Open → Data
 Change the Files of type field to Excel (*.xls)
 Select your Excel file and click Open
 Check that the box labelled “Read variable names from the
first row of data” is ticked and click OK (that is if the first
row in excel contains your variable names, otherwise leave
un-ticked)
 Your data should now appear in the SPSS data editor.
Data Entry (import from Excel)
14. Click Open- Data…

15. Change Files of type to Excel, then browse and open the file.

SPSS- Tutorial- Sample Files

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Data Entry (import from Excel)
16. Select the worksheet, the range (if desired), and if to read variable names-
click OK

The data and variable names will

appear

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 Data definition
Variable type Length of Brief variable Values of Alignment of
variable description qualitative variable
Title (variable Number of
name variable values
name) decimals

Type of
measure
Variable breadth
Definition of
missing value
coding
List of analyses
SPSS Viewer window
Results
Output Viewer
 Where results of statistical analysis performed via analyze
are displayed (will open automatically when analysis is
performed).
Organise SPSS files
Inspecting Data: Analyse – Report-
Code book
Data Exploration
 Running Analyses (Frequency)
Select Analyze- Descriptive Stats- Frequencies

Select the desired variables and click the arrow to move them to the right side

26
 Running Analyses (Frequency)
Click Statistics

Select any stats that you want to see, click Continue

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Running Analyses (Central Tendency)
Select Analyze- Descriptive Stats- Frequencies

Select the desired variables (household income) and click the arrow to move
them to the right side

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 Running Analyses (Central Tendency)
Select some measures of central
tendency and dispersion- click
Continue then OK

Results will appear

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 Running Analyses (Charts)
Click Charts

Select the type of chart you want, click Continue, then OK

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Running Analyses (Charts)
Result Tables and Graphs will appear

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 Graphing Data
 Click GRAPH

 Click CHART BUILDER

 Click HISTOGRAM

 Put MEN on the X axis.

 Click ELEMENT PROPERTIES.

Check the box labeled DISPLAY
NORMAL CURVE. This will
impose a normal curve onto your
graph. You can also change the style
of your graph in this element
properties window.

 You can copy and paste these graphs

into word and excel files.
 Graphing Continued
 There are other ways to make
graphs.
 Click ANALYZE
 Click DESCRIPTIVE
STATISTICS
 Click FREQUENCIES
 Click a variable
 Click CHART
 Click BAR CHART
 Click PERCENTAGES
 Defining missing values
 In SPSS we cannot have any empty cells. For this reason, we use a specific value (e.g. 0)
in order to define missing values.

 Missing values are defined in the

column Missing (Values). If we click on
the square that appears in the cells of
this column, the window on the right
pops up.

 We observe that we can

use up to three discrete
values in order to denote
missing values.
 Also, we can define a range of
missing values, e.g. all values
from 0 to -10, as well as one
extra value (e.g. 0 to -10, 333).
Cleaning the data – missing data
There are two types of missing values in SPSS: system-missing and user-defined.
System-missing data is assigned by SPSS when a function cannot be performed.

For example, dividing a number by zero. SPSS indicates that a value

is system-missing by one period in the data cell.
Data Manipulation – Compute New Variable

 Computing new variables – create a new

variable from multiple variables
 Click TRANSFORM
 Click COMPUTE
 Fill in the new target variable
TOTALSALES
 Fill in numeric expression =
men+women+jewel
 Create an IF statement by clicking on
the IF button
 Click INCLUDE IF CASE SATISFIES
CONDITION
 Enter condition MAIL>10000
 Data Manipulation – Recode a Variable

Recoding allows a researcher to create a new

variable with a different set of parameters
Click TRANSFORM
Click RECODE INTO DIFFERENT VARIABLE

move a variable over to the

right
create a name for the new
variable mailcategories
Click OLD AND NEW
VALUES
Data Manipulation – Recode A Variable cont.

Click
RANGE to
create ranges
of old values
Click
VALUE to
create a new
value for that
range
Weight Cases
Split File
Important -- to get back to "normal" where the data are not split, go
back to Data/Split Files... and select the option "Analyze All cases."
MERGE FILES
RECODE INTO DIFFERENT VARIABLES
RECODE INTO SAME VARIABLES
Recoding into the same variable (Transform
> Recode into Same Variables) works the
same way as described above, except for that
any changes made will permanently alter the
original variable. That is, the original values
will be replaced by the recoded values.
In general, it is good practice not to recode
into the same variable because it overwrites
the original variable. If you ever needed to
use the variable in its original form (or wanted
to double-check your steps), that information
would be lost.