Select Variables to Merge into Single Date/Time Variable

  1. Select the variables that represent the different parts of the date/time.
  • Some combinations of selections are not allowed. For instance, creating a date/time variable from Year and Day of Month is invalid because once Year is chosen, a full date is required.
  • You cannot use an existing date/time variable as one of the parts of the final date/time variable you’re creating. Variables that make up the parts of the new date/time variable must be integers. The exception is the allowed use of an existing date/time variable as the Seconds part of the new variable. Since fractional seconds are allowed, the variable used for Seconds is not required to be an integer.
  • Values, for any part of the new variable, that are not within the allowed range result in a value of system-missing for the new variable. For instance, if you inadvertently use a variable representing day of month for Month, any cases with day of month values in the range 14–31 will be assigned the system-missing value for the new variable since the valid range for months in IBM® SPSS® Statistics is 1–13.