This document provides an introduction to the SPSS interface and basic functions. It discusses the data view and variable view windows, how to enter data directly or import from Excel, clean data by checking for errors and missing values, and obtain descriptive statistics through functions like frequency, descriptives, histograms and box plots. The goal is to familiarize users with the SPSS interface and basic data management and analysis capabilities.

1. Introduction to the
SPSS Interface
Dr. Mohammed Alahmed
Ph.D. in Biostatistics
alahmed@ksu.edu.sa
(011) 4674108
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2. Contents
• SPSS interface:
– Data view and Variable view
• How to enter data in SPSS
• How to import external data into SPSS
• How to clean and edit data
• How to get descriptive statistics
2

3. SPSS interface
• Data view
– The place to enter data
– Columns: variables
– Rows: records
• Variable view
– The place to enter variables
– List of all variables
– Characteristics of all variables
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4. 4
Enter data in SPSS directly

5. Example: Hospital-stay data
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6. 6
Columns:
variables
Rows:
cases
Under Data
View

7. Enter Variables
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1. Click this
Window
1. Click Variable View
2. Type variable name
under Name column
(AGE).
NOTE: Variable name can
be 64 bytes long, and
the first character
must be a letter or
one of the characters
@, #, or $.
3. Type: Numeric, string,
etc.
4. Label: description of
variables.
2. Type
variable
name
3. Type:
numeric or
string
4.
Description
of variable

8. Enter variables
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Based on
your code
book!

9. Enter cases
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10. Import data from Excel
• Select File Open Data
• Choose Excel as file type
• Select the file you want to import
• Then click Open
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11. Open Excel files in SPSS
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12. Continue
12
Save
this file
as SPSS
data

13. Clean data after import data files
• Run cases summaries for all variables
• Run frequency for qualitative variables
and Descriptives for quantitative variables
• Check outputs to see if you have variables
with wrong values.
• Check missing values and physical surveys
if you use paper surveys, and make sure
they are real missing.
• Sometimes, you need to recode string
variables into numeric variables
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14. cases summaries
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15. 15

16. 16

17. Basic Statistical Analysis
• Descriptive statistics:
1. Find wrong entries
2. Have basic knowledge about the
sample and targeted variables in a
study
3. Summarize data.
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18. 18
Analyze Descriptive statistics Frequency
Qualitative Variables

19. 19

20. 20

21. 21
Analyze Descriptive statistics Descriptives
Quantitative Variables

22. 22
Histogram Box-Plot
AGE

23. 23
Duration of Stay
Histogram Box-Plot