This document provides an overview of using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for data analysis. It details the functionality of various windows in SPSS, including data entry, variable management, and the importance of a code book for organizing variables and their characteristics. Additionally, it offers guidelines on importing data, running descriptive statistics, and managing variable labels and values.

1. By KANG Sophanna
S/N: @kangsophanna
M/P: (855) 12 234 896
June 15, 2017
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2. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
SPSS offers a user-friendly data analysis platform.
SPSS has 3 windows:
Data Editor Window (.sav)
Output Viewer Window (.spv)
Syntax Editor Window (.sps)
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3. 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
Rows define the variables
Name, Type, Width, Decimals, Label, Missing, etc.
Scale – age, weight, income
Nominal – categories that cannot be ranked (ID number)
Ordinal – categories that can be ranked (level of satisfaction) 3

4. You need a code book/scoring guide
You give ID number for each case (NOT real
identification numbers of your subjects) if you use
paper survey.
If you use online survey, you need something to
identify your cases.
You also can use Excel to do data entry.
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A code book is about how you code your
variables. What are in code book?
1.Variable names
2.Values for each response option
3.How to recode variables

6. Columns:
variables
Rows: cases
Under
Data View
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7. 1. Click this
Window
1. Click Variable View
2. Type variable name under
Name column (e.g. Q01).
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
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8. Based on your code
book!
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9. Under Data
View
1. Two variables in the data set.
2. They are: Code and Q01.
3. Code is an ID variable, used to identify individual
case (NOT people’s real IDs).
4. Q01 is about participants’ ages: 1 = 12 years or
younger, 2 = 13 years, 3 = 14 years…
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10. Select File Open Data
Choose Excel as file type
Select the file you want to import
Then click Open
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12. Key in values and labels for each variable
Run frequency for each variable
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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13. Wrong
entries
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14. Descriptive statistics
Purposes:
1. Find wrong entries
2. Have basic knowledge about the sample and targeted
variables in a study
3. Summarize data
Analyze Descriptive statistics Frequency
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17. Keep Variable Names short. Use Labels as a more
detailed description of your data
Toggle between data values and labels:
Double-click margins to move between Data and
Variable Views
Right-click in drawdown menus (e.g., transform
operations) to toggle between values/labels
Moving variables within the list in Variable View
“clearing the cursor”
Click-and-hold, move right to move a new variable to the
top of the file
Other ideas?

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