Numeric Variable Formats

  • By default, if no format is explicitly specified, commands that read raw data--such as DATA LIST and GET DATA--assume that variables are numeric with an F format type. The default width depends on whether the data are in fixed or freefield format. For a discussion of fixed data and freefield data, see DATA LIST .
  • Numeric variables created by COMPUTE, COUNT, or other commands that create numeric variables are assigned a format type of F8.2 (or the default numeric format defined on SET FORMAT).
  • If a data value exceeds its width specification, an attempt is made to display some value nevertheless. First, the decimals are rounded, then punctuation characters are taken out, then scientific notation is tried, and if there is still not enough space, an ellipsis (...) is displayed, indicating that a value is present but cannot be displayed in the assigned width.
  • The output format does not affect the value stored in the file. A numeric value is always stored in double-precision.
    Note: SPSS® Statistics can at times process what would normally present as single decimal values as multiple decimal values (up to 15 decimals). For more information, see IBM SPSS Statistics does not consistently process double-precision, floating-point numbers.
  • For all numeric formats, the maximum width is 40.
  • For numeric formats where decimals are allowed, the maximum number of decimals is 16.
  • For default numeric (F) format and scientific notation (E) format, the decimal indicator of the input data from text data sources (read by commands such as DATA LIST and GET DATA) must match the IBM® SPSS Statistics locale decimal indicator (period or comma). Use SET DECIMAL to set the decimal indicator. Use SHOW DECIMAL to display the current decimal indicator.