Text Wizard: Step 3 (Fixed-Width Files)

This step provides information about cases. A case is similar to a record in a database. For example, each respondent to questionnaire is a case.

The first case of data begins on which line number? Indicates the first line of the data file that contains data values. If the top line(s) of the data file contain descriptive labels or other text that does not represent data values, this will not be line 1.

How many lines represent a case? Controls how the Text Wizard determines where each case ends and the next one begins. Each variable is defined by its line number within the case and its column location. You need to specify the number of lines for each case to read the data correctly.

How many cases do you want to import? You can import all cases in the data file, the first n cases (n is a number you specify), or a random sample of a specified percentage. Since the random sampling routine makes an independent pseudo-random decision for each case, the percentage of cases selected can only approximate the specified percentage. The more cases there are in the data file, the closer the percentage of cases selected is to the specified percentage.