FILE Subcommand (MATCH FILES command)

FILE identifies the files to be combined (except table files). At least one FILE subcommand is required on MATCH FILES. A separate FILE subcommand must be used for each input file.

  • An asterisk can be specified on FILE to refer to the active dataset.
  • Dataset names instead of filenames can be used to refer to currently open datasets.
  • The order in which files are specified determines the order of variables in the new active dataset. In addition, if the same variable name occurs in more than one input file, the variable is taken from the file specified first.
  • If the files have unequal numbers of cases, cases are generated from the longest file. Cases that do not exist in the shorter files have system-missing values for variables that are unique to those files.

PASSWORD Keyword

The PASSWORD keyword specifies the password required to open an encrypted IBM® SPSS® Statistics data file. The specified value must be enclosed in quotation marks and can be provided as encrypted or as plain text. Encrypted passwords are created when pasting command syntax from the Save Data As dialog. The PASSWORD keyword is ignored if the file is not encrypted.