bioepi lab spss

• Data Editor is a spreadsheet like method for creating and editing data files
• Data View has rows as cases where each row represents an observation while the columns are variables where each represents a characteristic that is being measured
• In Data View, cells contain values where it can only contain data values and cannot contain formulas
• Blank cells in the data view are converted to system missing values
• Variable View contains descriptions of the attributes of each variable in the data file where rows are variables and columns are variable attributes
• Variable Attributes include: Variable Name, Data Type, Number of digits, Number of decimal places, Descriptive variable and value labels, User-defined missing values, Column width, and Measurement level
• To define variable attributes: Variable View -> Select the attribute that you want to modify
• Variable Name must be unique, no spaces, and reserved keywords cannot be used
• The variable measurement levels are nominal, ordinal, and scale
• Variable Labels are descriptive levels and can contain spaces and reserved characters that weren't allowed in variable names
• Variable type is the data type for each variable and is assumed to be numeric
• To define variable type, click the button in the Type cell for the variable you want to define, select the data type in the Variable Type dialog box, and click OK
• Missing Values defines specified data values as user-missing
• In Entering Data, enter data directly in the Data View. The active cell is highlighted. And the variable name and row number of the active cells are displayed in the top left corner of the Data Editor.
• When you select a cell and enter a data value, the value is displayed in the cell editor at the top of the Data Editor
• Data Values are not recorded until you press Enter or select another cell
• To enter anything other than simple numeric data, you must define the variable type first
• You can modify data values in the data editor such as: Change data values; Cut, copy, paste data values; Add and delete cases; Add and delete variables; and Change the order of variables
• In replacing or modifying data values: Double click the cell -> edit value directly in the cell -> press Enter
• The View menu provides display options that are: Fonts - controls the font characteristics of the data display, Grid Lines - toggles the display of the grid lines, Value Labels - this option toggles between the display of actual data values and user-defined descriptive value labels that is only available in Data View
• In data editor printing, Data view is where the data are printed while in Variable View, data definition information is printed
• Grid Lines are printed if they are currently displayed in the selected view
• Value labels are printed in Data View if they are currently displayed. Otherwise, the actual data values are printed
• To print data editor contents: File -> Print
• To import data to SPSS, click File menu -> Open -> Data. An Open data dialog box will appear and there click the "Look in" dropdown and select the location of the file. Then click the "Files of Type" dropdown and select File Type of data set. Select the file name and click Open. The data set will then appear in the Data View tab.