Field Format Settings Tab

The Format tab on the Table and Type nodes shows a list of current or unused fields and formatting options for each field. Following is a description of each column in the field formatting table:

Field. This shows the name of the selected field.

Format. By double-clicking a cell in this column, you can specify formatting for fields on an individual basis using the dialog box that opens. See the topic Setting Field Format options for more information. Formatting specified here overrides formatting specified in the overall stream properties.

Note: The Statistics Export and Statistics Output nodes export .sav files that include per-field formatting in their metadata. If a per-field format is specified that is not supported by the IBM® SPSS® Statistics .sav file format, then the node will use the IBM SPSS Statistics default format.

Justify. Use this column to specify how the values should be justified within the table column. The default setting is Auto, which left-justifies symbolic values and right-justifies numeric values. You can override the default by selecting Left, Right, or Center.

Column Width. By default, column widths are automatically calculated based on the values of the field. To override the automatic width calculation, click a table cell and use the drop-down list to select a new width. To enter a custom width not listed here, open the Field Formats subdialog box by double-clicking a table cell in the Field or Format column. Alternatively, you can right-click on a cell and choose Set Format.

View Current Fields. By default, the dialog box shows the list of currently active fields. To view the list of unused fields, select View unused fields settings.

Context Menu. The context menu for this tab provides various selection and setting update options. Right-click in a column to display this menu.

• Select All. Selects all fields.
• Select None. Clears the selection.
• Select Fields. Selects fields based on type or storage characteristics. Options are Select Categorical, Select Continuous (numeric), Select Typeless, Select Strings, Select Numbers, or Select Date/Time. See the topic Measurement levels for more information.
• Set Format. Opens a subdialog box for specifying date, time, and decimal options on a per-field basis.
• Set Justify. Sets the justification for the selected field(s). Options are Auto, Center, Left, or Right.
• Set Column Width. Sets the field width for selected fields. Specify Auto to read width from the data. Or you can set field width to 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, or 200.