Engr.

Nana Kwame Obeng-Ahenkora

( MGIOC, PE.IET-GH, SM-CIOB, SM-CIARB)
The course content
About the four-windows in SPSS

The basics of managing data files

The basic analysis in SPSS

 Introduction: What is SPSS?
Originally it is an acronym of Statistical Package for the
Social Science but now it stands for Statistical Product and
Service Solutions

One of the most popular statistical packages which can

perform highly complex data manipulation and analysis
with simple instructions
The Four Windows: Data Editor
Data Editor
Spreadsheet-like system for defining, entering, editing, and displaying data.
Extension of the saved file will be “sav.”
The Four Windows: Outer Viewer
Output Viewer
Displays output and errors. Extension of the saved file will be “spv.”
The Four Windows: Syntax Editor
Syntax Editor
Text editor for syntax composition. Extension of the saved file will be “sps.”
The Four Windows: Script Window
Script Window
Provides the opportunity to write full-blown programs, in a BASIC-like language. Text
editor for syntax composition. Extension of the saved file will be “sbs.”
 Opening SPSS
Start → All Programs → SPSS Inc→ SPSS 16.0 → SPSS 16.0
 Opening SPSS
The default window will have the data editor
There are two sheets in the window:
1. Data view 2. Variable view
Data View window
The Data View window
This sheet is visible when you first open the Data Editor and this sheet contains the data
Click on the tab labeled Variable View

Click
 Variable View window
This sheet contains information about the data set that is stored with the
dataset
Name
The first character of the variable name must be alphabetic
Variable names must be unique, and have to be less than 64 characters.
Spaces are NOT allowed.
Variable View window: Type
Type
Click on the ‘type’ box. The two basic types of variables that you will use are numeric
and string. This column enables you to specify the type of variable.
Variable View window: Width
Width
Width allows you to determine the number of characters SPSS
will allow to be entered for the variable
Variable View window: Decimals
Decimals
Number of decimals
It has to be less than or equal to 16

3.14159265
Variable View window: Label
Label
You can specify the details of the variable
You can write characters with spaces up to 256 characters
Variable View window: Values
Values
This is used and to suggest which numbers represent which categories
when the variable represents a category
Defining the value labels
Click the cell in the values column as shown below
For the value, and the label, you can put up to 60 characters.
After defining the values click add and then click OK.

Click
Practice 1
How would you put the following information into SPSS?

Name Gender Height

JAUNITA 2 5.4
SALLY 2 5.3
DONNA 2 5.6
SABRINA 2 5.7
JOHN 1 5.7
MARK 1 6
ERIC 1 6.4
BRUCE 1 5.9

Value = 1 represents Male and Value = 2 represents Female

Practice 1 (Solution Sample)

Click
Click
Saving the data
To save the data file you created simply click ‘file’ and click ‘save as.’ You
can save the file in different forms by clicking “Save as type.”

Click
Sorting the data
Click ‘Data’ and then click Sort Cases
 Sorting the data (cont’d)
Double Click ‘Name of the students.’ Then click ok.

Click

Click
 Practice 2
How would you sort the data by the ‘Height’ of students in descending
order?
Answer
Click data, sort cases, double click ‘height of students,’ click ‘descending,’ and
finally click ok.
Transforming data
 Click ‘Transform’ and then click ‘Compute Variable…’
Transforming data (cont’d)
Example: Adding a new variable named ‘lnheight’ which is the natural
log of height
Type in lnheight in the ‘Target Variable’ box. Then type in ‘ln(height)’ in the
‘Numeric Expression’ box. Click OK

Click
Transforming data (cont’d)
A new variable ‘lnheight’ is added to the table
Practice 3
Create a new variable named “sqrtheight” which is the square root of
height.
Answer
The basic analysis of SPSS that will be
introduced in this class
Frequencies
This analysis produces frequency tables showing frequency
counts and percentages of the values of individual variables.

Descriptive
This analysis shows the maximum, minimum, mean, and
standard deviation of the variables

Linear regression analysis

Linear Regression estimates the coefficients of the linear
equation
 Opening the sample data
Open ‘Employee data.sav’ from the SPSS
Go to “File,” “Open,” and Click Data
Opening the sample data
Go to Program Files,” “SPSSInc,” “SPSS16,” and “Samples”
folder.
Open “Employee Data.sav” file
 Frequencies
Click ‘Analyze,’ ‘Descriptive statistics,’ then click ‘Frequencies’
Frequencies
Click gender and put it into the variable box.
Click ‘Charts.’
Then click ‘Bar charts’ and click ‘Continue.’

Click Click
Frequencies
Finally Click OK in the Frequencies box.

Click
Using the Syntax editor
Click ‘Analyze,’ ‘Descriptive statistics,’ then
click ‘Frequencies.’
Put ‘Gender’ in the Variable(s) box.
Then click ‘Charts,’ ‘Bar charts,’ and click
‘Continue.’
Click ‘Paste.’

Click
Using the Syntax editor
Highlight the commands in the Syntax editor
and then click the run icon.
You can do the same thing by right clicking the
highlighted area and then by clicking ‘Run
Current’

Right
Click Click!
Practice 4
Do a frequency analysis on the
variable “minority”

Create pie charts for it

Do the same analysis using the

syntax editor
Answer

Click
Descriptives
Click ‘Analyze,’ ‘Descriptive statistics,’ then
click ‘Descriptives…’
Click ‘Educational level’ and ‘Beginning
Salary,’ and put it into the variable box.
Click Options

Click
Descriptives
The options allows you to analyze other
descriptive statistics besides the mean and Std.
Click ‘variance’ and ‘kurtosis’
Finally click ‘Continue’

Click

Click
Descriptives
Finally Click OK in the Descriptives box. You will
be able to see the result of the analysis.
Regression Analysis
Click ‘Analyze,’ ‘Regression,’ then click
‘Linear’ from the main menu.
Regression Analysis
 For example let’s analyze the model salbegin   0  1edu  
 Put ‘Beginning Salary’ as Dependent and ‘Educational Level’ as
Independent.

Click
Click
Regression Analysis
 Clicking OK gives the result
Plotting the regression line
Click ‘Graphs,’ ‘Legacy Dialogs,’
‘Interactive,’ and ‘Scatterplot’ from the
main menu.
Plotting the regression line
Drag ‘Current Salary’ into the vertical axis box
and ‘Beginning Salary’ in the horizontal axis box.
Click ‘Fit’ bar. Make sure the Method is
regression in the Fit box. Then click ‘OK’.

Set this to
Click
Regression!
PracticeFind
5 out whether or not the previous experience
of workers has any affect on their beginning
salary?
Take the variable “salbegin,” and “prevexp” as
dependent and independent variables
respectively.

Plot the regression line for the above analysis

using the “scatter plot” menu.
Answer

Click
Click on the “fit” tab to make
sure the method is regression
THE END