SPSS Basics

There are 2 ways to open SPSS:

• From the Start Menu at the bottom left corner of the screen
  
• From the Shortcut to SPSS icon on the Desktop
  
  

There are 3 types of files in SPSS:

• Data files. These files are spreadsheets that contain the data on which you will perform analyses. Data files have a ".sav" extension.
  
• Output files. These files have several functions: they show you a record of the actions you have performed in SPSS, the results of your analyses, and any errors the program may encounter. Output files have a ".spo" extension.
  
• Syntax files. These files contain commands that may be run on the data files. Since commands may be performed by pointing and clicking on the data file, it is not necessary to use a syntax file. Syntax files have a ".sps" extension.

Entering Data

There are 5 things that need to be identified for each variable:

• Name. What the variable is called. It can be named any combination of up to 8 characters (letters or numbers). However, you may not use any punctuation marks, or anything that is a command in SPSS (e.g. the word "by").
  
• Type. What kind of data the variable is (numeric, string, etc.).
  
• Labels. There are 2 kinds of labels: variable labels and value labels. Variable labels are used to provide a more complete description of the variable. Value labels define what the numbers in your data stand for (e.g. our variable named "sex" has the labels 1 = female, 2 = male).
  
• Missing Values. What if someone leaves something blank? For our dataset, all missing values are represented by the number 9.
  
• Measure. How the variable is measured (scale, ordinal, or nominal).

Getting Around in SPSS

• To change any part of a variable, double-click on the horizontal gray bar at the top of the spreadsheet. This brings you to the Define Variable window.
  
• Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move forward and backward.
  
• To go all the way to the end of the data, press <control> and the right arrow key.
  
• To go all the way to the beginning of the data, press <control> and the left arrow key.

  
  
  

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Susan Archambault
Psychology Department, Wellesley College

Created By: Nina Schloesser '02
Created On: July 20, 2000
Last Modified: July 28, 2000