Validate Data Basic Checks

The Basic Checks tab allows you to select basic checks for analysis variables, case identifiers, and whole cases.

Analysis Variables. If you selected any analysis variables on the Variables tab, you can select any of the following checks of their validity. The check box allows you to turn the checks on or off.

  • Maximum percentage of missing values. Reports analysis variables with a percentage of missing values greater than the specified value. The specified value must be a positive number less than or equal to 100.
  • Maximum percentage of cases in a single category. If any analysis variables are categorical, this option reports categorical analysis variables with a percentage of cases representing a single nonmissing category greater than the specified value. The specified value must be a positive number less than or equal to 100. The percentage is based on cases with nonmissing values of the variable.
  • Maximum percentage of categories with count of 1. If any analysis variables are categorical, this option reports categorical analysis variables in which the percentage of the variable’s categories containing only one case is greater than the specified value. The specified value must be a positive number less than or equal to 100.
  • Minimum coefficient of variation. If any analysis variables are scale, this option reports scale analysis variables in which the absolute value of the coefficient of variation is less than the specified value. This option applies only to variables in which the mean is nonzero. The specified value must be a non-negative number. Specifying 0 turns off the coefficient-of-variation check.
  • Minimum standard deviation. If any analysis variables are scale, this option reports scale analysis variables whose standard deviation is less than the specified value. The specified value must be a non-negative number. Specifying 0 turns off the standard deviation check.

Case Identifiers. If you selected any case identifier variables on the Variables tab, you can select any of the following checks of their validity.

  • Flag incomplete IDs. This option reports cases with incomplete case identifiers. For a particular case, an identifier is considered incomplete if the value of any ID variable is blank or missing.
  • Flag duplicate IDs. This option reports cases with duplicate case identifiers. Incomplete identifiers are excluded from the set of possible duplicates.

Flag empty cases. This option reports cases in which all variables are empty or blank. For the purpose of identifying empty cases, you can choose to use all variables in the file (except any ID variables) or only analysis variables defined on the Variables tab.

How to specify basic checks

  1. From the menus choose:

    Data > Validation > Validate Data...

  2. In the Validate Data dialog box, click the Basic Checks tab.