Data File Created from One Table (OMS command)

Data files can be created from one or more tables. There are two basic variations for data files created from a single table:

  • Data file created from a two-dimensional table with no layers.
  • Data file created from a three-dimension table with one or more layers.

Example

In the simplest case--a single, two-dimensional table--the table columns become variables and the rows become cases in data file.

Figure 1. Single two-dimensional table
Single two-dimensional table
  • The first three variables identify the source table by command, subtype, and label.
  • The two elements that defined the rows in the table--values of the variable Gender and statistical measures--are assigned the generic variable names Var1 and Var2. These are both string variables.
  • The column labels from the table are used to create valid variable names. In this case, those variable names are based on the variable labels of the three scale variables summarized in the table. If the variables didn't have defined variable labels or you chose to display variable names instead of variable labels as the column labels in the table, then the variable names in the new data file would be the same as in the source data file.

Example

If the default table display places one or more elements in layers, additional variables are created to identify the layer values.

Figure 2. Table with layers
Table with layers
  • In the table, the variable labeled Minority Classification defines the layers. In the data file, this creates two additional variables: one that identifies the layer element, and one that identifies the categories of the layer element.
  • As with the variables created from the row elements, the variables created from the layer elements are string variables with generic variable names (the prefix Var followed by a sequential number).