Introduction to SPSS

(version 16) for

Windows

Practical workbook

Aims and Learning Objectives

By the end of this course you will be able to:
• create and run SPSS programs to do simple statistical data analysis.
This includes being able to:
• create frequency tables;
• produce bar charts;
• use crosstabulation and correlation;
• move data from other applications into SPSS;
• move SPSS output into your word processor application.

University of Bristol Information Services document spss16-t2

Introduction to SPSS (version 16) for Windows (spss16-t2)

Document information
Related documentation
Other related documents are available from the web at:

Practical introduction to SAS on Unix (document number sas-t1)

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/learning/documentation/sas-t1/sas-t1.doc

Using SAS on Unix (document number sas-r1)

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/learning/documentation/sas-r1/sas-r1.html

Using SAS/Graph on Unix (document number sas-r2)

www.bristol.ac.uk/is/learning/documentation/sas-r2/sas-r2.pdf

Introduction to SPSS (version 16) for Windows (October 2008)

www.bristol.ac.uk/is/learning/documentation/spss-t2/spss-t2.doc
If you have any comments or queries about this document mail iser-docs@bristol.ac.uk.
This document may be used wholly or in part by the academic community, providing suitable
acknowledgment is made. It may not be used for any commercial or profit-making purpose without
permission. © 2006 University of Bristol. All rights reserved.
Introduction to SPSS (version 16) for Windows (spss16-t2)

Introduction
SPSS provides facilities for analysing and displaying information using a variety of techniques.
This document uses version 16 of SPSS for Windows.

Prerequisites
Basic familiarity with Windows and at least an elementary knowledge of simple statistics
(statistical theory is not taught on this course).
Introduction to SPSS (version 16) for Windows (spss16-t2)

Contents
Document information

Task 1 Starting SPSS ......................................................................................... 1

Task 2 Example dataset ..................................................................................... 2
Task 3 The Data Editor ...................................................................................... 5
Task 4 Naming and defining variables ............................................................. 6
Variable names ................................................................................ 6
Variable types .................................................................................. 8
Variable width and decimal places ................................................ 8
Variable labels ................................................................................. 9
Value labels ..................................................................................... 9
Missing values ............................................................................... 11
Data display ................................................................................... 12
Measurement scale of variables................................................... 12
Task 5 Entering data ........................................................................................ 14
Task 6 Help system .......................................................................................... 17
Task 7 Frequency tables - the frequencies procedure .................................. 18
Task 8 Saving files in SPSS ............................................................................ 21
Saving an SPSS data file .............................................................. 21
Saving an SPSS output file ........................................................... 21
Task 9 Leaving SPSS ....................................................................................... 23
Task 10 Opening a file ....................................................................................... 24
Task 11 Controlling your output ....................................................................... 25
Task 12 Procedure commands - Frequencies.................................................. 27
Task 13 Using summary statistics for continuous variables – the Descriptives
procedure ............................................................................................................. 29
Task 14 Producing a bar chart from frequencies............................................. 31
Task 15 Displaying histograms ......................................................................... 34
Task 16 Crosstabulation .................................................................................... 35
Adding cell percents and the chi-square statistic ...................... 35
Task 17 Clustered bar chart .............................................................................. 37
Task 18 Analysing data in subgroups - Split File ............................................ 39
Task 19 Modifying variables .............................................................................. 40
Recoding values into a new variable ........................................... 40
Computing new variables ............................................................. 42
Task 20 Correlations .......................................................................................... 44
Task 21 Creating charts - drawing a scatter plot ............................................. 46
Task 22 Saving an updated copy of the data ................................................... 48
Task 23 Getting SPSS to read data from other spreadsheet formats e.g. Excel49
Introduction to SPSS (version 16) for Windows (spss16-t2)

Task 24 Saving output from SPSS into word processor documents e.g.
Microsoft Word ..................................................................................................... 52
Appendix A References..................................................................................... 54
Introduction to SPSS (version 16) for Windows (spss16-t2)

Task 1 Starting SPSS

1.1 To open SPSS:

Ø From the Start menu go to All Programs / SPSS Inc and select SPSS 16.0
followed by SPSS 16.0.
Initially the SPSS Data Editor window opens up with a queries window
superimposed (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – the data view of the data editor window

Ø Select Cancel or Type in data to this query window. The query window then
closes.

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Task 2 Example dataset

Comments This document uses an example survey and considers some of the analyses that
might be carried out on the data. An SPSS dataset is made up of a number of
observations, each of which contains a value for each variable in the dataset. You
will be instructed how to create the SPSS dataset for the example survey in due
course but first you must understand the layout and meaning of the survey
questionnaire.

2.1 Imagine that you interviewed some people on their smoking habits using the
questions shown below:

Reference number

Smoking Questionnaire
1. How old were you on your last birthday?

2. Indicate your sex Male Female

3. Do you smoke at all? Yes 1 No 2

If No, go to question 9

4. Do you smoke cigarettes? Yes 1 No 2

If No, go to question 6

5. On average how many cigarettes a day

would you say that you smoked?

6. Do you smoke a pipe? Yes 1 No 2

7. Do you smoke cigars? Yes 1 No 2

8. Have you ever tried to give up smoking? Yes 1 No 2

9. Tell me what you think on each of the following three statements:-

Tax on tobacco is too high

strongly disagree 1 disagree 2 agree 3 strongly agree 4

Smoking is dangerous to your health

strongly disagree 1 disagree 2 agree 3 strongly agree 4

Smoking should not be allowed in cinemas

strongly disagree 1 disagree 2 agree 3 strongly agree 4

From 10 completed questionnaires it is possible to create a dataset like the one

shown on the following page (Table 1). This dataset has 10 observations and 12
variables. The data is in fixed column format; each measurement forms a column
and the values in each column make up a variable. Note that blanks indicate
missing values. Each of the items recorded - Age, Sex and so on - are data values.

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For Sex, M and F are used to denote male and female, rather than using numeric
codes. All the information about a single person makes up one observation.

Ref Age Sex Smoke Smoke How Pipe Cigars Give Tax Health Cinema
Number Cigs many Up

1 27 F 1 1 10 2 2 1 3 3 3

2 31 M 2 4 2 1

3 35 M 2 4 1 1

4 58 M 2 3 1 2

5 56 M 2 4 3 2

6 25 F 1 1 20 2 2 2 3 4 4

7 41 F 1 1 30 2 1 1 3 1 3

8 38 F 1 1 999 2 2 1 4 4 4

9 43 F 1 2 2 1 1 4 2 2

10 29 M 1 1 40 2 2 2 2 4 4

Table 1 - example data set

From this dataset you can see that the reference number of the first subject is 1, she
is 27 and is female. She smokes, and smokes cigarettes, on average 10 per day.
She doesn't smoke a pipe or cigars and has tried to give up. She agrees that tax on
tobacco is too high and that smoking is dangerous to your health and that smoking
should be banned from cinemas.
Later you will be asked to enter these values but first you are asked to consider how
variables are defined and what attributes they can have.
Each variable needs to be given a variable name that is used in describing the
variable to SPSS. Table 2 lists the names that are to be used in the example and
specifies the order in which they are to be given to SPSS. It also suggests suitable
labels that can later be associated with the variables to clarify output.

ref_no Reference number

age Age last birthday

sex Sex of respondent

smoker Do you smoke?

cigs Do you smoke cigarettes?

num_cigs How many cigarettes per day?

pipe Do you smoke a pipe?

cigars Do you smoke cigars?

give_up Have you tried to give up smoking?

tax Do you think tax on tobacco is too high?

danger Do you think smoking is dangerous to your health?

cinemas Do you think smoking should be allowed in cinemas?

Table 2 – labels given to each variable to clarify output

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You should now have all the information necessary to start creating the example
dataset in SPSS. First you will use the Variable View of the Data Editor window to
specify the variable names and their attributes.
You should note that this data was collected in 1995 before any of the present day
legislation on smoking in public had be introduced.

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Task 3 The Data Editor

The Data Editor is a worksheet used for entering and editing data. It has two panes,
the Data View and the Variable View. You switch between each by clicking on the
tab at the bottom left of the Data Editor window.
In general, to enter data in a cell in the worksheet you can use the cursor to click on
the desired cell, type in the entry and finish by using the <Enter> key. If you make a
mistake you can overtype all the contents of a cell by a similar process.
If you want to correct just part of a cell then double-click on the cell, then use the
direction keys to locate the part you want to change. Correct the error using the
<Backspace> key and type the correction, and then use the <Enter> key to
complete the edit. Some cells in the Variable View window are limited to specific
values. When you click on such a cell a square grey icon appears on the right of the
cell. Clicking on this brings up a window that allows values to be entered and
changed from a predefined list.

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Task 4 Naming and defining variables

4.1 To select the Variable View of the Data Editor window:

Ø Click on the Variable View tab in the bottom left hand corner of the screen (Figure
2).

Figure 2 - the Variable View of the Data Editor window

Note This window already has a defined structure. There are ten columns headed: -
Name, Type, Width, Decimals, Label, Values, Missing, Columns, Align and
Measure.
Each of these headings is used to indicate some facet of the definition of each
variable. Their use is described as we proceed to develop our sample dataset.

Variable names
The rules for names are:
• the name must begin with a letter. The remaining characters can be any letter,
any digit, a period, or the symbols @, #, _, or $;
• variable names cannot end with a period;
• variable names that end with an underscore should be avoided;

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• the length of the name cannot exceed 64 bytes. Sixty-four bytes typically means
64 characters in single-byte languages (eg, English, French, German) and 32
characters in double-byte languages (eg, Japanese, Chinese, Korean);
• spaces and special characters (eg !, ?, ', and *) cannot be used;
• each variable name must be unique; duplication is not allowed;
• the underscore character is frequently used where a space is desired in names;
• Reserved keywords cannot be used as variable names – these are ALL, AND,
BY, EQ, GE, GT, LE, LT, NE, NOT, OR, TO and WITH;
• A mixture of uppercase and lowercase characters, and case is preserved for
display.

4.2 Point and click on the cell in row 1 and column 1. Type ref_no in this cell. Use the
down arrow to move to row 2 column 1.
Ø Type age in this cell. Use the down arrow to move to row 3 column 1.
Ø Continue with this process until all 12 variable names from Table 2 are entered in
this first column. Your screen should then look like Figure 3.

Figure 3 - table with variable names in first column

Note When the down arrow is pressed, the 9 columns to the right of the first column fill
with values (default values). We can examine these nine columns and if necessary
change values in specific cells to reflect properties of our example dataset.
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Variable types
The Type column is showing Numeric for all rows. This means that numeric
(number) values will be expected in the dataset relating to these variables. This is
correct for all the variables except sex where we have collected data in the form of F
for female and M for male.
4.3 To enter the data as M or F, change the variable type:
Ø Point and click on the grey box on the right of the cell giving Type for the variable
sex.

Figure 4 - Variable Type options box

A dropdown menu appears offering eight data types (Figure 4). The common items
are Numeric, Date, Custom currency and String. For a full description of each of
the variable types, click on the Help button.
4.4 To enter alpha characters into the variable sex, select data type String by clicking
on its selection button. Notice that a string of 8 characters is the default. Whilst this
would cause no problem, it is more efficient to reduce it to the actual number of
characters you are going to input. Therefore change the default of 8 in the box to 1.
Ø Click OK to return to the Variable View window.

Variable width and decimal places

The next column is headed Width and deals with the maximum number of
characters that will be displayed for a particular variable in all output relating to this
variable. It does not control the display in the Data View window, which is
determined by Columns - see later. For a numeric variable it needs to be
considered alongside the next column labelled Decimals. The value in this column
indicates the number of decimal places that will be displayed in all output relating to
this variable. By default the Width value is set to 8 and Decimals to 2. This may be
felt to be appropriate and not need changing. For finer control of your output, you
can alter values as necessary. For a string or date variable, the Decimals column
has no meaning.
For the example dataset, it would be better to choose:
Width 1, Decimals 0 for variables smoker, cigs, pipe, cigars, give_up, tax, danger
and cinemas.

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Width 2, Decimals 0 for variable age.

Width 3, Decimals 0 for variable num_cigs.
Width 4, Decimals 0 for variable ref_no.
Width 1 for string variable sex.
4.5 Starting in the first row, fourth column, click on the cell and either type the required
decimals value (0) or use the small up/down arrows that appear to adjust the value.
Move to the third column and change the value to two.
Note (If you attempt to reduce the Width to 2 first, it will fail since a number with 2 (by
default) decimal places needs a minimum of 3 columns width).
Ø Repeat this process for all the other variables.

Variable labels
The next column is headed Label and is used to inform SPSS about the details
associated with each variable name. The maximum length of any label is 255
characters and there are no restrictions on what may appear. Spaces are entered
just as typed. If you want to specify where a new line appears in a label, type \n
within the text and SPSS will wrap the label at this point.
4.6 Moving to the first row, fifth column, click on the cell and type in the words:
Reference number. The width of the column can be expanded to allow for the
number of characters in the label. To do this, place the cursor on the divide between
Label and Values in the table headings, where it will change to a two headed
horizontal arrow, and then drag to the right as required.
Ø Move down to row 2, column 5 and type Age last birthday.
Ø Continue entering the labels for all the other variables as given in table 2.
Ø To correct any existing labels, double-click on the entry and edit as you would in a
word processor.

Value labels
4.7 The next task is to enter Value Labels for each variable if appropriate. These will
appear in the Values column. For our first two variables (ref_no and age) there are
no Value Labels, so the default entry of None can remain. For sex you can indicate
that M is male and F is female.

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Figure 5 - the value labels options box

Ø Move to row 3 column 6 and click on the grey box on the right of the cell. A
dropdown menu appears so you can provide Value Label information (Figure 5).
Ø In the box by the word Value type F. In the box by the word Label type Female.
Ø Click on Add and watch the value and its label move to the bottom box.
Ø In the box by the word Value now type M and the word Male in the Label box.
Ø Click on Add. Now that all the Value Labels for this variable are complete (your
screen should look like Figure 6), click on OK to return to the Variable View
window.

Figure 6 - the completed value labels options box

Note The first part of the Value Label that you entered appears in the appropriate cell.
4.8 The next variable needing a Value Label is smoker:
Ø Click on row 4 column 6 and its grey box. Enter the value 1 and label Yes in the
dropdown menu box and click Add. Enter the Value 2 and Label No and click on
Add. Click on OK.
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4.9 The variables cigs, pipe, cigars and give_up all need the same Value Labels as
smoker. Either you can repeat the above instructions for each variable in turn or
take advantage of a useful shortcut:
Ø Click in the cell containing the values for smoker. Copy this cell by using either Edit
/ Copy from the main menu or by clicking the right mouse button and selecting
Copy, or by pressing <Ctrl + C>. Point at the cell for Value for variable cigs and
paste the current clip board using either Edit / Paste or use the right mouse button
and choose Paste, or use <Ctrl + V>. Repeat this process for pipe, cigars and
give-up values.
4.10 Finally for the variables tax, danger and cinemas, you will need to provide four
value labels for each.
Ø Use the basic method to enter this information for the variable tax:
• Value 1 has the label Strongly disagree.
• Value 2 has the label Disagree.
• Value 3 has the label Agree.
• Value 4 has the label Strongly agree.
Ø Now copy and paste for the other two variables danger and cinemas.

Missing values
The next column of the Variable View sheet is Missing Values. In the statistical
analysis of any dataset it is sometimes necessary to exclude cases where the
information is not known or not appropriate. An example of this occurs in the
variable num_cigs in this dataset. The information is missing in two situations; for
non-smokers it is not appropriate and in the data the appropriate cell has been left
blank; for one interview, ref_no 8, the respondent failed to give an answer to this
question (no he did not smoke 999 cigarettes per day!) A number that could not be
expected as a genuine response is selected to represent this circumstance.
However in any analysis, it should not be considered as it would seriously distort
many statistical procedures.
Within SPSS there are two types of missing value - system-missing values and
user-defined missing values. By default, for non-string variables, an empty cell is
defined as a system missing value and does not need to be further declared. For
user-defined missing values this column of the Variable View has to be used.

Figure 7 - the missing values options box

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Ø Click on row 6, column 7 and then the small grey box at the right of the cell to
produce the Missing Values dropdown menu (Figure 7).
Ø Select the Discrete missing values button and enter 999 in the first cell.
Ø Click on OK and return to the Variable View window. Notice that the value 999 now
appears in the missing column for the variable num_cigs.
If entering missing values for string variables, the required discrete value should be
entered as characters e.g. X to represent the letter X, a space to represent an empty
cell.

Data display
The next two columns (Columns and Align) are concerned with the display of data
in the Data View window. For the purposes of this example dataset, the default
values of a column 8 characters wide and the values right aligned for numeric
variables and left aligned for string variables are fine. When you have entered your
data as instructed below, return to the Variable View window and change one or
more of these values. Then flip to the Data View window and see the effect your
choice has made.

Measurement scale of variables

The final column is concerned with the measurement scale properties of your
variable. In statistics certain procedures are only appropriate for variables
measured on specific scales of measurement. The measurement characteristics
recognised by SPSS are as follows:
scale to represent a numeric variable that can take discrete or continuous
values along a range
ordinal to represent values that, although numeric, only represent an ordered
listing of such values
nominal to represent values that are simply names

You should be able to recognise that in the example dataset, there are:
• 6 nominal measures - sex, smoker, cigs, pipe, cigars and give up.
• 3 ordinal measures - tax, danger and cinemas.
• 3 scale measures - ref_no, age and num_cigs (ref_num could be nominal,
ordinal or scale!)
4.11 Starting with ref_no in row 1, column 10, click on the cell and choose the
appropriate measure. (You should not have to change this from the default).
Ø Move down the column making the appropriate choice in each case. The first
change is for the variable smoker, which will need to be changed to nominal.
You have now defined all the information that SPSS needs to know about the
characteristics of your specific dataset. Your variable view pane should look like
Figure 8.

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Figure 8 - the variable view screen with defined information

You may return to the Variable View window at any time if further changes are
needed.

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Task 5 Entering data

The Data View pane of the Data Editor window is used to enter the data.
Displayed initially is an empty spreadsheet with the variable names you have
defined appearing as the column headings.
The data that you need to enter is given in Task 2, but for your convenience the
data table is reproduced here.
Number

Cinema
Smoke

Smoke

Health
Cigars
many

Give
How

Pipe
Cigs
Age

Sex

Tax
Ref

Up
1 27 F 1 1 10 2 2 1 3 3 3

2 31 M 2 4 2 1

3 35 M 2 4 1 1

4 58 M 2 3 1 2

5 56 M 2 4 3 2

6 25 F 1 1 20 2 2 2 3 4 4

7 41 F 1 1 30 2 1 1 3 1 3

8 38 F 1 1 999 2 2 1 4 4 4

9 43 F 1 2 2 1 1 4 2 2

10 29 M 1 1 40 2 2 2 2 4 4

5.1 Click on the Data View tab of the Data Editor Window
Ø To enter the first person’s data, click the first cell of ref_no.
Ø Type 1.
Ø Press the <Tab> key or right arrow once and the heavy outline moves to the next
column.
Ø Type in 27 and press the <Tab> key.
Ø Type in F and press the <Tab> key.
Ø Type in 1 and press the <Tab> key.
Ø Follow the same procedure along the first row until all twelve data values are
entered.
5.2 Move back to row 2, column 1 and start to enter the values for interview 2. Press
the <Tab> key twice to skip over a column. Notice that a dot appears in the cell.
This is the system-missing value (see Figure 9).

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Figure 9 - Data Editor window with the first and part of the second interview entered

5.3 Continue the process until the data from all ten interviews are entered. Your Data
Editor screen should now look like Figure 10 below. Some people find it easier to
enter data by column rather than by row. The method is similar except that you use
the down arrow key instead of the <Tab> key. The <Home> and <End> keys take
the cursor to the first or last column of a particular case. <Ctrl + Home> will take
you to row 1, column 1, and <Ctrl + End> to the last used cell.

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Figure 10 - the data editor window with all interview data entered

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Introduction to SPSS (version 16) for Windows (spss16-t2)

Task 6 Help system

More information about SPSS may be found in the on-line help facility. To access
on-line help:
Ø Click Help from the main menu.
A menu appears from which you can choose further topics.
Ø Click Topics and an output screen similar to the one shown in Figure 11 should
open in a new window.

Figure 11 - a typical Help screen from SPSS

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Task 7 Frequency tables - the frequencies procedure

7.1 If you want to know the number of males and females in this sample, you need to
see the distribution of the variable sex, by using the Frequencies procedure:
Ø In the Data Editor window select Analyze.
Ø From the Analyze menu select Descriptive Statistics.

Figure 12 - the window with drop down menus from the Analyze command

Ø From the Descriptive Statistics submenu, select Frequencies (Figure 12).

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Figure 13 - the Frequencies options window

Ø Select Sex of respondent.

Ø Click the right pointing arrow head (Ê) to move sex into the Variables box (see
Figure 13).
Ø Click OK.
A frequency table is produced. Note that tables, statistics and charts are displayed
in the SPSS Viewer window – a completely different window from the Data Editor
(Figure 14).

Figure 14 - the SPSS Viewer (Output) window with a frequency table

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The SPSS Viewer window has two panes, each with its own bottom and right scroll
bars. The left pane contains an outline (index) of the results so far. The right pane
contains the detailed tables, graphs and text output. Clicking on the + and -
symbols in the left pane controls what output is displayed in the right pane. Clicking
on the other section names in the left pane moves the focus of the right pane display
so it starts the display at the selected item.
You can use the Window command to select which window you want to be in at any
particular time.
7.2 Click Window.
Note that there are currently 2 types of window:
• Untitled [Dataset0] - SPSS Data Editor
• Output1 [Document 1] - SPSS Viewer
Ø Click SPSS Data Editor.

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Task 8 Saving files in SPSS

Saving an SPSS data file

8.1 To save an SPSS data file:
Ø Select File in the Data Editor window (rather than File in the Viewer window!).
Ø Select Save As (see Figure 15).
Ø Ensure the desired directory is displayed in the Look in box. If you are using a file
in one of the Computer Centre training rooms change the directory to:
C:\User\Stats.
Ø Type smoking in the File name box.
Ø Click Save.

Figure 15 - the Save/Save As data options window

SPSS saves the file as smoking.sav in the specified directory. Normal Windows
rules apply to file names.

Saving an SPSS output file

8.2 To save an SPSS output file:
Ø Select File in the SPSS Viewer window.
Ø Select Save As (see Figure 16).
Ø Ensure the desired directory is displayed in the Save in box. If you are using one of
the Computer Centre training rooms change the directory to C:\User\Stats.
Ø Type smoking in the File name box.
Ø Click Save.

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Figure 16 - the Save/Save As output options window

The saved output from SPSS appears in the file smoking.spv. This is the output
produced by the various procedures, eg tables, means, plots. It does NOT contain
all the values of the dataset variables nor all the label information so cannot be used
like an SPSS data file for future analysis purposes. It is known as the spool file.
Note This file is not a text file - you must inspect such files by opening them via the File
option in the SPSS Viewer window. To get other formats eg, text, you must select
the desired items in the Viewer outline and use the File Export option (see Task
24 at the end of this document).

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Task 9 Leaving SPSS

9.1 To leave SPSS:

Ø Click File in the Viewer or Data Editor window.
Ø Click Exit.
SPSS shuts down all open windows and exits. It prompts you if data and/or output
have not been saved before exiting.

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Task 10 Opening a file

10.1 To open an existing file; in this case, smoking.sav:

Ø Go back into SPSS 16.0.
Ø Click on smoking.sav in the file list.
Ø Click OK.
Ø If smoking.sav is not listed, then click on More files and click on OK.
Ø Ensure the correct directory is specified in the Look in box (Figure 17)

Figure 17 - the open data file options window

Ø Select smoking.
Ø Click Open.

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Task 11 Controlling your output

SPSS provides a number of useful commands for directing your output in a specific
fashion. You can experiment with most of them in your own time. However, there
are a few minor changes that would help the remainder of this practical.
11.1 From the main menu click on Edit.
Ø Click on Options in the submenu.
A dropdown menu of some complexity appears as in Figure 18.

Figure 18 - the General window from the Edit Options submenu

Ø Select the General tab (it may be displayed automatically).

At the top left is the Variable Lists section. These options specify how the list of
variables offered in all SPSS procedures is composed. If you prefer your variables
to be listed in alphabetical order, as opposed to entry (file) order, press the
appropriate button. Also some users prefer to have the variable name and not its
label displayed.
In the Notification panel of the Output section, you will see a Scroll to new output
option. You are advised to always have this ticked.
If you make any changes to this General tab, click the Apply button before moving
on. You may be advised that certain changes cannot be applied until you start
SPSS again. Click on OK but remember when you have made all your changes you
may need to leave SPSS and restart it from the SPSS 16.0 command.

11.2 Select the Viewer tab (Figure 19).

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Figure 19 - the Viewer window from the Edit Options submenu

At the foot of the first column (Initial Output State) is a tick box labelled Display
commands in the log. It is very helpful in any discussion of your output to have
this command log available. If necessary tick the box by clicking on it. When you
now run any SPSS command, your output file will include a representation of the
choices you made from any drop-down menu. This takes the form of the commands
generated in SPSS’s own language. You can see this in Figure 20 on the following
page where the first two lines in the right hand frame are the log generated by the
particular request for a Frequencies count. This SPSS language is referred to as
syntax and is a very powerful tool in the advanced use of the program, but is
beyond the scope of this session.
The right hand frames of this screen allow you to change the default fonts used by
SPSS in the production of output.
If you make any changes to this Viewer tab, click the Apply button before moving
on. This practical does not intend to investigate any further tabs in the Options
menu, so press OK to exit this section. (Remember to restart SPSS if you have
been told it is necessary.)

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Task 12 Procedure commands - Frequencies

Comments Having created an SPSS dataset, SPSS procedures may be used to analyse and
process the data. There are many different procedures in SPSS. The following
sections describe the procedures Frequencies, Descriptives, Crosstabs,
Correlations and Graphs. Now you need to decide what you want SPSS to do.
The questions you might wish to ask of the data include:
What is the distribution of each variable?
How many men and women are there?
Is there a correlation between tax, cinemas and danger?

12.1 To generate a Frequencies table:

Ø In the Viewer or Data Editor window, select Analyze.
Ø From the Analyze menu, select Descriptive Statistics.
Ø From the Descriptive Statistics submenu, select Frequencies.
The Frequencies box contains a list of variables in the Data Editor. Generate two
frequency tables one for sex and one for smoker.
Ø Click Sex of respondent.
Ø Click Ê.
Ø Click Do you smoke? [smoker].
Ø Click Ê,
Ø Click OK.
Here, Frequencies is used to find the sex distribution of the sample and the
distribution of the smokers. Examine the output. You should find that there are 5
women and 5 men, 6 smokers and 4 non-smokers and no missing values. The
contents of the tables are the frequency and the percentage of the total number in
the table.

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Figure 20 - the Output window from the Frequencies procedure

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Task 13 Using summary statistics for continuous

variables – the Descriptives procedure

With continuous variables, frequency tables are not always the best method of
summarising. A better option would be to use a selection of summary statistics in
place of a frequency table. Frequencies and crosstabulations are useful mainly for
categorical variables, ie where the values represent categories such as
male/female, nationality, class of university degree. However, variables like age and
num_cigs have many values and for these continuous variables, statistics like the
mean and standard deviation are sometimes useful.
13.1 In the Viewer or Data Editor window select Analyze.
Ø From the Analyze menu, select Descriptive Statistics.
Ø From the Descriptive Statistics submenu, select Descriptives.
Ø Select the variable Age last birthday [age] (see Figure 21).

Figure 21 - the Descriptives option window

Ø Click the Options button in the Descriptives window.

A number of statistics options which are appropriate for continuous variables are
displayed (Figure 22).

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Figure 22 - the statistics options for continuous variables

Ø Select Mean, Standard deviation, Minimum, Maximum and Range.

Ø Click Continue.
Ø Click OK.
The required statistics are displayed in Figure 23. You may have to scroll down in
the SPSS Viewer window to see this.

Figure 23 - SPSS viewer output from Descriptives procedure

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Task 14 Producing a bar chart from frequencies

14.1 To create a bar chart for sex using the Frequencies box:
Ø In the Viewer or Data Editor window click Analyze.
Ø From the Analyze menu, click Descriptive Statistics.
Ø From the Descriptive Statistics submenu, click Frequencies.
Ø Click Reset.
Ø Select Sex of respondent [Sex] and then click Ê (Figure 24).

Figure 24 - the Frequencies option window

Ø Click Charts (see Figure 25).

Figure 25 - the Charts submenu window from Descriptives

Ø Click the Bar chart(s) option and click on Continue.

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Ø Click Display Frequency Tables to suppress the display of the frequency table.
Ø Click OK.
SPSS draws the chart and shows it in the Output Viewer window (Figure 26). (You
may need to scroll down to see the complete chart.)

Figure 26 - SPSS viewer output produced using the Bar Chart option from the
Frequencies procedure
To display the chart in a full screen window, double-click on the chart in the Viewer
pane (this takes you into the SPSS Chart Editor window where the chart may be
amended to suit personal preferences e.g. colour choice, labels, etc) (Figure 27).

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Figure 27 - SPSS Chart Editor window

Ø To leave the Chart Editor window click File/Close.
If the chart editor is left open, then the image of the chart in the Viewer window is
displayed as “crossed-out” and cannot be displayed properly until the chart editor is
closed.

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Task 15 Displaying histograms

15.1 Use the Frequencies dialog box to request a histogram:

Ø Select Analyze.
Ø Select Descriptive Statistics.
Ø Select Frequencies.
Ø Click Reset.
Ø Select Age last birthday [age].
Ø Click Charts.
Ø Click Histogram(s).
15.2 To display a normal curve on the chart:
Ø Select With normal curve.
Ø Click Continue and then click OK.
Ø The histogram appears in the Output Viewer window (Figure 28).

Figure 28 - SPSS viewer output produced using the histogram option from the
Frequencies procedure

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Task 16 Crosstabulation

The data may be broken down further with crosstabulation (multi-way) tables, which
show the joint distribution of two variables’ values. If you want to know how many
women are smokers, the two numerical variables, sex and smoker are used in
Crosstabs.
16.1 To get a crosstabulation:
Ø Select Analyze.
Ø Select Descriptive Statistics.
Ø Select Crosstabs.
Ø Select Do you smoke? [smoker] from the source variable list.
Ø Click Ê adjacent to the Row(s) text box.
Ø From the source variable list select Sex of respondent [sex].
Ø Click Ê adjacent to the Column(s) text box.
Ø To see the crosstabulation click OK.
SPSS produces a crosstabulation of smoker by sex. The cells of the table show the
Counts. You should find that all five women are smokers and only one man is a
smoker.

Adding cell percents and the chi-square statistic

16.2 Select Analyze.
Ø Select Descriptive Statistics.
Ø Select Crosstabs.
The table contents can be changed by clicking on the Cells button and specifying
options. Some useful options are:
Expected prints expected values
Row includes row percentages
Column includes column percentages

16.3 Modify the Crosstabs table to request statistics and include the options Row,
Column, Total and Expected as follows:
Ø Click the Cells button.
Ø Select the additional options Expected, Row Percentages, Column Percentages
and Total Percentages.
Ø Click Continue.
The Statistics button in the Crosstabs window requests statistics.
Ø Click the Statistics button.
Chi-square requests a Chi-Square (χ 2) test of independence and a Fisher's Exact
test when there are fewer than 20 cases in a 2 x 2 table.
Ø Select the Chi-square option.
Ø Click Continue.

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Ø Click OK (see the results in Figure 29).

Figure 29 - SPSS viewer output from Crosstabs procedure (with Chi-squared tests)

Suppose that you wish to test the hypothesis: 'Men and women are not equally likely
to smoke' against the alternative: 'Men and women are equally likely to smoke'.
Since 100% of the cells have expected counts of less than 5, the Chi-Square test is
not valid. However, the Fisher's Exact test (p=0.048 - statistically quoted as p<0.05)
which is also given, lends support to the hypothesis that women and men in this
sample are not equally likely to smoke.

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Task 17 Clustered bar chart

17.1 A clustered bar chart can give a picture of the crosstabulation in Task 16:
Ø In the Viewer or Data Editor window select Graphs.
Ø Select Legacy Dialogs.
Ø Select Bar (for bar charts).
Ø To see the number of people who smoke or not, with separate bars for men and
women click Clustered in the Bar Charts box.
Ø To see the counts of cases summarised in the bars click Define to specify the
variables in the chart (see Figure 30).

Figure 30 - the Define options window in the Clustered Bar Chart procedure

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Ø Click Cum. N in the Bars Represent panel.

Ø From the source variable list select Sex of respondent [sex].
Ø Click Ê to place sex underneath Category Axis.
Ø From the source variable list select Do you smoke? [smoker].
Ø Click Ê adjacent to Define Clusters by.
Ø Click OK.
17.2 Is the graph what you expected? Look carefully at the right hand cluster of bars. (It
should NOT look like the graph below in Figure 31)
Try re-running this procedure but this time in the Define section select N of cases in
the Bars Represent panel. (You should now get a graph like Figure 31). See that
you understand the difference between the two graphs you have produced using
SPSS.

Figure 31 - SPSS viewer output from Clustered bar chart

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Task 18 Analysing data in subgroups - Split File

A procedure can produce analyses for separate subgroups rather than for all the
data if the Split File option is selected before a procedure is carried out. The
variable (or variables) that define the subset are given in the Split File command.
For example, you may want to run descriptives first for the women, and then for the
men and thus produce separate mean values of age for men and women.

Figure 32 - the Split File option box

18.1 Select Data.
Ø Select Split File (see Figure 32).
Ø Select Organise output by groups.
Ø Move Sex of respondent [sex] to the Groups Based on box.
Ø Click OK.
Note Split File sorts your data. In the Data Editor, observations are no longer in Ref_no
order.
18.2 To see how Split File processing works, from the Analyze menu, select the
Descriptive Statistics option to run Descriptives for Age last birthday [age].
Ø Click OK.
In the Viewer window, you should find that the mean age for women is 34.8 years
and the mean age for men is 41.8 years.
All subsequent analyses are done separately for each group.
18.3 To turn off the Split File option:
Ø Select Data.
Ø From the Data menu, click Split File.
Ø Click Analyze all cases.
Ø Click OK to select analysis for the whole dataset.

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Task 19 Modifying variables

Recoding values into a new variable

Sometimes you might want to use data in a different form, such as looking at the
age groups young and old (eg 30 and under, 31 and above) rather than exact age.
For instance, the values of age could be recoded to 1 and 2, representing say,
young (1) and old (2).
19.1 You can create a new variable to hold the new recoded values and preserve the
original values:
Ø Select Transform.
Ø From the Transform menu click Recode Into Different Variables.
A dialog box opens up where you can select the variable you want to recode (Figure
33).
19.2 To recode age to agecat (age category):
Ø Click Age last birthday [age] in the source variable list.
Ø Click Ê to transfer age.
Give an Output Variable Name, eg, agecat.
Ø Click in the Label text box and type Age category.
Ø Click Change to register the new output variable.

Figure 33 - the Recode submenu options window

Once you have decided which variables to recode you need to specify the old and
new values.
19.3 Select the Old and New Values box (Figure 34).
To create a young (to be called 1) and an old category (to be called 2), recode the
values 0 through to 30 into the new value 1:
Ø Click on the Range, LOWEST through button.

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Ø Type 30 in the text box.

Figure 34 - the Old and New values options window in Recode

Ø Click Value in the New Value area.

Ø Type 1 in the New Value text box.
Ø Click Add to place this specification in the Old-> New text box.
Ø Repeat to recode values (ages) 31 and above to new value 2, using Range, value
through HIGHEST. Remember to click Add.
Ø Click Continue to return to the Recode into Different Variables window.
Ø Click OK to perform the recoding operation.
SPSS adds the new variable agecat to the next empty slot in the Data Editor
window. Look at the right-most column in the Data View pane of the window
(Figure 35). Also look at the Variable View pane to see that agecat has been
added as variable number 13. Whilst in the variable view panel you might like to add
the value labels for this new variable agecat (see Task 4 if you have forgotten how).

Figure 35 - SPSS Data Editor window with extra variable ‘agecat’ added

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19.4 Use Frequencies to tabulate agecat and check the results. You should find that 3
subjects are aged 30 or less and 7 subjects are age 31 or more.

Figure 36 - SPSS viewer output from recoded variable ‘agecat’

Computing new variables

Compute commands are so-called because they assign values to variables. They
may be used, for example, when data are not in the form required. For example, the
log of age may be required for analysis rather than actual age. The SPSS Data
Editor window contains the Transform menu with the Compute option.
19.5 To create a new variable firstly choose a name for the variable, eg logage.
To calculate the log of age:
Ø Select Transform.
Ø Select Compute.
Ø Type logage in the Target Variable box (Figure 37).

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Figure 37 - the Compute Variable options window

Next, in the Numeric Expression text box you need to give the instructions for
calculating the variable, in this case taking the log of age.
19.6 Initially you need to find the appropriate function. Log is an arithmetic function:
Ø Click on Arithmetic in the Function group window.
Ø Scroll down and click on Ln in the Functions and Special Variables window.
Ø Click the up arrow next to the Function group box.
Note A Function group must be highlighted as well as a Function otherwise the up
arrow alongside the functions group does not operate.)
Ø Select Age last birthday (age).
Ø Click Ê to move age to replace the ? in the function definition.
Now you have a compute statement: logage=LN(age).
Ø Click OK.
SPSS creates the new variable and places it in the next free column in the Data
Editor window. The newly created variable logage may now be used in SPSS
procedures.

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Task 20 Correlations

The correlations procedure calculates the (Pearson parametric) correlation between

variables and is used to measure the strength of linear association between 2
variables.
20.1 To obtain the Pearson correlation coefficients of tax, danger and cinemas:
Ø Select Analyze.
Ø Select Correlate.
Ø Select Bivariate (see Figure 38).

Figure 38 - the Bivariate Correlations options window

Ø Move the following to the Variables box:

• Do you think tax on tobacco too high? (tax)
• Do you think smoking is dangerous to your health? (danger)
• Do you think smoking should be allowed in cinemas? (cinemas) to the
Variables box.
Ø Click Flag significant correlations to put a tick in the box. (It may already be
ticked)
Ø Click OK.
There is a significant correlation between danger and cinemas (0.746, p<0.05),
which means that people who feel that smoking is dangerous also tend to think that
smoking should not be allowed in cinemas.

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Since the three variables in this correlation analysis are ordinal in measurement
scale, it would have been statistically more proper to use Spearman's Rank
correlation coefficients to measure the relationship.
20.2 Repeat the above analysis but this time select the Spearman correlation coefficient.
Note that the same relationship remains significant, although its value is slightly
lower than the Pearson correlation (Figure 39).

Figure 39 - SPSS viewer output from Spearman’s Rank correlation

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Task 21 Creating charts - drawing a scatter plot

A scatter plot graphs one variable against another, and often gives an idea of any
associations in the data. In this example, we will plot danger along the horizontal (X)
axis and cinemas along the vertical (Y) axis.
21.1 To use the Graphs menu to specify the scatter plot:
Ø Click Graphs and Legacy Dialogs.
Ø From the menu select Scatter/Dot.
Ø To specify the scatter plot click Simple Scatter.
Ø Click Define in the Simple Scatterplot dialog box (see Figure 40).

Figure 40 - the Scatterplot design window from Graph Scatter/Dot procedure

Ø Click on Do you think smoking should be allowed in cinemas? [cinemas] in the

source variable list.
Ø Click Ê to place cinemas in the Y Axis text box.
Ø Click on Do you think smoking is dangerous to health? [danger] in the source
variable list.
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Ø Click Ê to place danger in the X Axis text box.

Using a variable such as sex, we can also see if there is a difference between the
men and women.
Ø Click Sex of respondent [sex[ in the source variable list.
Ø Click Ê to place sex in the Set Markers by box.
Ø Click OK.
This produces a plot of cinemas versus danger; the variable sex is used to mark
each observation on the plot as male and female. Where duplicate values occur, this
may not be an accurate representation. Have a look at the data points for the data in
Figure 41.

Figure 41 - the SPSS viewer output from Scatter/Dot in Graphs

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Task 22 Saving an updated copy of the data

In order to save your recoded information and computed variables permanently, you
must save the current copy of the data in the Data Editor window. For now, save
the file under a new name, smoking2. You can save the file under the same name
or a different name.
22.1 To save the file:
Ø Click File in the Data Editor window.
Ø From the File menu click Save As.
Ø Ensure the directory in the Save in box is correct. If you are using one of the
Computer Centre training rooms change the directory to C:\User\Stats.
Ø Type smoking2.sav in the File name box.
Ø Click Save.
An updated copy of the data is saved in smoking2.sav.

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Task 23 Getting SPSS to read data from other

spreadsheet formats e.g. Excel

When working the Computer Centre training rooms you will notice that in the
directory C:\User\Stats there is a file called Large Smoking Data.xls. This is an
Excel spreadsheet that has the same 12 variables as you have used so far in this
workbook, but with many more cases than you have entered.
23.1 Browse to C:\User\Stats
Ø Double click on the file name to enable Excel to open the file (Figure 42).
You will notice that the first row of the Excel spreadsheet contains the names of the
twelve variables exactly as you used them before. You will analyse this large file
using SPSS.
Ø Close the Excel file at this point.

Figure 42 - the first part of the Excel data file Large Smoking Data.xls

23.2 To input the Excel file:

Ø Go back into SPSS 16.0 for Windows.
Ø Select Cancel to the query window.
Ø From the File menu select Open and then select Data.
Ø Ensure the directory in the Look in box is correct. If you are in one of the Computer
Centre training rooms change the directory to C:\User\Stats.
Ø The Files of type window will be showing SPSS. This needs to be changed to
Excel by clicking on the down arrow at the right-hand end of the Files of Type box
and selecting Excel (*xls, *xlsx, *xlsm). The file name Large Smoking Data
should now be visible (see Figure 43).

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Ø Double click the file name.

Figure 43 - the SPSS Open File menu window showing an Excel file for input

Ø The next menu confirms that the Excel file has been recognised. You should check
that the box Read variable names from first row of data is ticked (Figure 44).
Ø Click Continue

Figure 44 - the options window showing an Excel file for input

You now have a data file in SPSS with all the additional cases. Unfortunately all the
information you entered into the Variable View part of your small original SPSS file
is missing. You could re-type this information as you did earlier, but you can get
SPSS to import the original.
23.3 In the Data Editor window click on Data.
Ø Click on Copy Data Properties (see Figure 45).

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Figure 45 - the Copy Data Properties menu window

You wish to use the properties of the file smoking.sav which you saved earlier in
C;\User\Stats.
Ø Select An external SPSS data file and either by direct entry or browsing insert into
the file name box C:\User\Stats\smoking.sav
Ø Click Finish. (If you were to click Next, you would have a number of alternatives
offered that would allow you to control more finely what properties are copied)
23.4 Using procedures you mastered earlier, answer the following:- (keep your SPSS
output for Task 24)
1. How many females answered the questionnaire? (Clue Task 12).
2. Show a histogram of respondent’s ages? (Clue Task 15).
3. Are men and women equally likely to smoke? (Clue Task 16).
4. What is Spearman’s rank correlation between danger and cinemas? (Clue
Task 20).

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Task 24 Saving output from SPSS into word processor

documents e.g. Microsoft Word

The output file produced by SPSS can only be read by the SPSS program. However
most users would like to take all or parts of their SPSS output and insert them into
their usual word processor’s documents. We shall learn how this can be achieved by
moving output to a Microsoft Word document.
There are two ways of achieving this process. Let’s first consider allowing SPSS to
do most of the work.
24.1 Make sure you are in the SPSS Viewer window.
Ø From the File menu select Export.

Figure 46 – the SPSS Export Output window

Ø In the Objects to Export box, ensure that All Visible objects is selected
Ø Under Document Type select Word/RTF file (*.doc) from the drop down menu.
Ø In the File Name box type C:\User\Stats\wordoutput.
Ø Click OK.
24.2 Minimise SPSS Viewer and Data Editor windows and then browse to and open the
document wordoutput.doc. You will see that all your original output has been
transferred.
24.3 There is an alternative way of achieving the movement of small amounts of output
where you have much more control. Keep your wordoutput document open but
position your cursor at the end of the present file. Minimise the Word document and
maximise SPSS viewer file.

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Ø Point and click on any single table or chart in your output. You will notice that a
rectangular box appears around the table.
Ø Click on Edit and select Copy.
Ø Maximise your Word file and click on Edit and Paste.
This process will work for transferring all text, tabular or chart output from SPSS.

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Appendix A References
One of the reasons for using SPSS in the University is that it has a very comprehensive on-line
documentation facility. When the software is installed you should take a copy of the ‘Manuals’
disc. On this you will find a series of ‘pdf’ files that give full documentation in each area of SPSS.
Listed below are the titles of the important files.
Manuals relating to statistical issues:
• SPSS Brief Guide 16.0
• SPSS Base User’s Guide 16.0
• SPSS Tables 16.0
• SPSS Data Preparation 16.0
• SPSS Advanced Models 16.0
• SPSS Regression Models 16.0
• SPSS Trends 16.0
• SPSS Categories 16.0
• SPSS Classification Trees 16.0
• SPSS Complex Samples 16.0
• SPSS Conjoint 16.0
• SPSS Exact Tests
• SPSS Missing Value Analysis 16.0

Manuals relating to computational issues:

• SPSS 16.0 Algorithms
• SPSS 16.0 Command Syntax Reference
• SPSS Programming and Data Management, 4th Edition

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