Defining Variable Properties

Define Variable Properties is designed to assist you in the process of assigning attributes to variables, including creating descriptive value labels for categorical (nominal, ordinal) variables. Define Variable Properties:

• Scans the actual data values and lists all unique data values for each selected variable.
• Identifies unlabeled values and provides an "auto-label" feature.
• Provides the ability to copy defined value labels and other attributes from another variable to the selected variable or from the selected variable to multiple additional variables.

Note: To use Define Variable Properties without first scanning cases, enter 0 for the number of cases to scan.

In the first step of Define Variable Properties, you:

1. Select the variables for which you want to create value labels or define/change other variable properties, such as missing values or descriptive variable labels.
2. Specify the number of cases to scan to generate the list of unique values. This is particularly useful for data files with a large number of cases for which a scan of the complete data file might take a significant amount of time.
3. Specify an upper limit for the number of unique values to display. This is primarily useful to prevent listing hundreds, thousands, or even millions of values for scale (continuous interval, ratio) variables.