Overview (DESCRIPTIVES command)
DESCRIPTIVES computes univariate statistics--including the mean, standard deviation,
minimum, and maximum--for numeric variables. Because it does not sort
values into a frequency table, DESCRIPTIVES is an efficient means of computing descriptive statistics for continuous
variables. Other procedures that display descriptive statistics include FREQUENCIES, MEANS, and EXAMINE.
Options
Z Scores. You can create new variables
that contain z scores (standardized
deviation scores from the mean) and add them to the active dataset
by specifying z-score names on
the VARIABLES subcommand or by
using the SAVE subcommand.
Statistical
Display. Optional statistics available with the STATISTICS subcommand include the standard
error of the mean, variance, kurtosis, skewness, range, and sum. DESCRIPTIVES does not compute the median
or mode (see FREQUENCIES or EXAMINE).
Display Order. You can list variables
in ascending or descending alphabetical order or by the numerical
value of any of the available statistics using the SORT subcommand.
Basic Specification
The
basic specification is the VARIABLES subcommand with a list of variables. All cases with valid values
for a variable are included in the calculation of statistics for that
variable. Statistics include the mean, standard deviation, minimum,
maximum, and number of cases with valid values.
Subcommand Order
- Subcommands can be used in any order.
Operations
- If a string variable is specified on the variable list, no statistics are displayed for that variable.
- If there is insufficient memory
available to calculate statistics for all variables requested,
DESCRIPTIVEStruncates the variable list.