SAVE Subcommand (CLUSTER command)

SAVE allows you to save cluster membership at specified solution levels as new variables in the active dataset.

  • The specification on SAVE is the CLUSTER keyword, followed by either a single number indicating the level (number of clusters) of the cluster solution or a range separated by a comma indicating the minimum and maximum numbers of clusters when membership of more than one solution is to be saved. The number or range must be enclosed in parentheses and applies to all methods specified on METHOD.
  • You can specify a rootname in parentheses after each method specification on the METHOD subcommand. CLUSTER forms new variable names by appending the number of the cluster solution to the rootname.
  • If no rootname is specified, CLUSTER forms variable names using the formula CLUn_m, where m increments to create a unique rootname for the set of variables saved for one method and n is the number of the cluster solution.
  • The names and descriptive labels of the new variables are displayed in the procedure information notes.
  • You cannot use the SAVE subcommand if you are replacing the active dataset with matrix materials (See the topic Matrix Output (CLUSTER command) for more information. )

Example

CLUSTER A B C
 /METHOD=BAVERAGE SINGLE (SINMEM) WARD
 /SAVE=CLUSTERS(3,5).
  • This command creates nine new variables: CLU5_1, CLU4_1, and CLU3_1 for BAVERAGE, SINMEM5, SINMEM4, and SINMEM3 for SINGLE, and CLU5_2, CLU4_2, and CLU3_2 for WARD. The variables contain the cluster membership for each case at the five-, four-, and three-cluster solutions using the three clustering methods. Ward’s method is the third specification on METHOD but uses the second set of default names, since it is the second method specified without a rootname.
  • The order of the new variables in the active dataset is the same as listed above, since the solutions are obtained in the order from 5 to 3.
  • New variables are listed in the procedure information notes.