1. College of Health Sciences
Department of Public Health
Data management and software application (PHEB712)
Erean Shigign(BSc, MPH/Epidemiology)
Email: erean_shigign@slu.edu.et
May 15, 2023 1
3. Objectives
At the end of this session students will be able to:
• Conceptualize the synopsis of SPSS
• Identify the different windows in SPSS
• Define variables, enter, manipulate, and save data
• Manage and analyze data, produce graphs
• Interpret the results of data analysis using different assumptions
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4. Introduction to SPSS
• SPSS was originally launched in 1968 by SPSS Inc., and was later
acquired by IBM in 2009.
• Distributed for data management and statistical analysis.
• The SPSS software package is continually being updated & improved.
• The data from other software's can be exported to SPSS for detailed
analysis.
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6. SPSS Windows
• There are three main and separate windows:
The Data Editor window
The Output (Viewer) window
The Syntax Editor window
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7. SPSS Windows
• It is important to know in which window one is working
because each window supports a specific function.
Window name
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8. 1. Data editor window
• It is the view where we see our data
• It is useful to see and manipulate the data
• It has *.sav extension
• It has two views: Data view and Variable view
• Views can be exchanged by clicking the view we desire at the left most lower side
of the data editor.
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9. 1. Data editor window…
Variable view
Data view
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10. 1. Data editor window…
1. Data view
• Simple observation of:
•Variables name
•Variables value
• We are able to edit directly the
values of variables.
• Data can be entered when SPSS
is in data view
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11. 1. Data editor window…
Data view…
Row
• A horizontally recorded
Single study subject’s
information.
Column
• A vertically recorded
single Variable’s value
across all study subjects.
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12. 1. Data editor window…
2. Variable view
• It is important to create
new variables in SPSS
• It is by writing name of
variable, type of variable,
its label and its value
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13. 2. Variable view…
1. Naming of variables - rules
• Must be unique
• Must begin with a letter or symbol @
• Only letters, numbers, the period (.), underscore ( _ ), and the $, #, and @
symbols can be used within variable names
• Names must not end with as period.
• Names can be safely written up to 32 characters long.
• Spaces are not allowed within variable names
• Name of variable should not start using number
• Example: Agegroup (correct) vs age group (incorrect)
p01age (correct) vs 01age (incorrect)
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14. 2. Variable Type - specifies the data
type for each variable.
1. Numeric: for countable (quantitative)
only accepting numerical (coding of
categorical variables is possible)
2. Date: characteristics it can use
different styles of dates
3. String: if we interested in words.
(alphanumeric
variables or character variables).
2. Variable view…
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15. 2. Variable view…
3. Width
• Allow number of characters of
continuous variable.
• If numeric type of variable, it will ask
to choose number of widths and
decimals (as a default the width
comes 8 and decimals of 2).
• If date type of variable, it may ask you
to choose number of characteristics of
the type of date.
• If a categorical data with words, it will
ask you to choose number of
characteristics you wanted to add.
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16. 2. Variable view…
4. Decimals
• Number of decimals
• It has to be ≤16
• If it is date or string
variable, it will not
request you decimals
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17. 2. Variable view…
5. Label of the variables
• It’s detailed description of
the variable name
• You can write characters with
spaces up to 256 characters
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18. 2. Variable view…
6. Values of the variable
• It’s is the description of values
of variables of categorical
variables coded as
quantitative.
• It is for variables whose values
are nominated.
• Eg. ‘Sex’ (1. male, 2. female)
‘Residence’(1. urban, 2.
rural)
• For continuous variables, no
value is needed to be coded
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19. • Defining the value labels
• Click the cell in the values column as shown below
• For the value, and the label, you can put up to 60 characters.
• After defining the values click add and click OK.
2. Variable view…
click
1. Write the value first
2. Write its meaning
3. Click “add” to pass
4. Click “ok” to finish
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20. 2. Variable view…
7. Missing
• Specify what is to be
entered for a value that is
missing for a variable.
• Arise when no data value
is saved for the variable in
observation.
click
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21. 2. Variable view…
8. Columns
• Determine the space
of a column of a
variable
• The width of each column in
the data view spreadsheet.
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22. 2. Variable view…
9. Align
• The alignment of
content in the cells of
the SPSS Data View
spreadsheet.
• Options include
• Left-justified,
• Right-justified, or
• Center-justified.
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23. 2. Variable view…
10. MEASURE
• The level of measurement
for the variable (e.g.,
nominal, ordinal, or scale).
• Nominal for categorical,
ordinal for ordered type
and scale for numerical.
click
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24. 2. Variable view…
11. ROLE
• The role that a variable will play in
your analyses (i.e., independent
variable, dependent variable,
both indpt and dpt).
• Input: The variable will be used as a
independent variable (the default
assignment for variables).
• Target: The variable will be used as
an dependent variable.
• Both: The variable will be used as
both indpt and dpt.
• None: The variable has no role.
• Partition: The variable will partition
the data into separate samples.
• Split: Used with the IBM® SPSS®
Modeler (not IBM® SPSS® Statistics).
click
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25. Saving data file in
SPSS
1. File 2. Save as
3. By clicking HERE you
can choose where to
save your file.
4. By typing HERE you can
give your file a name.
5. By clicking HERE you
can choose a type of your
data file. 6. Click
here to
save.
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26. 2. The Viewer window
• The Viewer window displays
all
•Statistical results,
•Tables, and
•Charts
•Commands…etc.
•It has *.spv extension
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27. 2. The Viewer window…
Output in detail
Output in outline
Title bar and
menu bar in
output window
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28. 3. The Syntax Editor
• It is the window in which SPSS
commands can be typed and
submitted for processing.
• Commands saved in files can be
opened in a syntax Editor Window for
processing.
• It has *.sps extension
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29. 3. The Syntax Editor…
Program with a
command
Syntax menu
Clicking here will
execute a command
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30. • Once a syntax is written, we are able to execute it.
• In excuting a syntax we are able to do the whole program as whole or
by selecting part of the syntax
• To do the whole syntax, select the ‘run’ from the pulldown menu of the
syntax and select ‘all’
• To excute part of the syntax, shade it and run the file
3. The Syntax Editor…
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31. Opening an existing data file
• From already entered and saved data
file:
• In SPSS having ‘*.sav’ extension or
• Different package
• such as EPI info, Excel, SAS, Stata or dBase
etc.
• In data editor window,
• Choose the file type, and then
browse and select your file so it
appears by file name.
File Open Data
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32. Opening an existing data file…
By clicking the file type,
you are able to find the type of extension
By clicking the here,
you are able to find
where your file is.
you can search
your file name
by typing here.
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