Overview (DISPLAY command)

DISPLAY exhibits information from the dictionary of the active dataset. The information can be sorted, and it can be limited to selected variables.

Basic Specification

The basic specification is simply the command keyword, which displays an unsorted list of the variables in the active dataset.

Syntax Rules

DISPLAY can be specified by itself or with one of the keywords defined below. NAMES is the default. To specify two or more keywords, use multiple DISPLAY commands.

NAMES. Variable names. A list of the variables in the active dataset is displayed.

DOCUMENTS. Documentary text. Documentary text is provided on the DOCUMENT and ADD DOCUMENT commands. No error message is issued if there is no documentary information in the active dataset.

DICTIONARY. Complete dictionary information for variables. Information includes variable names, labels, role, sequential position of each variable in the file, print and write formats, missing values, and value labels.

ATTRIBUTES. Variable and data file attributes, except attributes with names that begin with "@" or "$@". Custom attributes defined by the VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE commands.

@ATTRIBUTES. All variable and data file attributes, including those with names that begin with "@" or "$@".

INDEX. Variable names and positions.

VARIABLES. Variable names, positions, print and write formats, and missing values.

LABELS. Variable names, positions, and variable labels.

SCRATCH. Scratch variable names.

VECTOR. Vector names.

MACROS. Currently defined macros. The macro names are always sorted.

Operations

  • DISPLAY directs information to the output.
  • If SORTED is not specified, information is displayed according to the order of variables in the active dataset.
  • DISPLAY is executed as soon as it is encountered in the command sequence, as long as a dictionary has been defined.