Overview (DATA LIST command)
DATA LIST
defines a text data file by assigning names and formats to each variable
in the file. Text data can be inline (entered with your commands between BEGIN DATA
and END DATA
) or stored in an external file. They can be in fixed format (values
for the same variable are always entered in the same location on the same record for each case) or
in freefield format (values for consecutive variables are not in particular columns but are entered
one after the other, separated by a specified delimiter).
DATA LIST FILE=<path/file>
to avoid any possible data loss.For information on defining matrix materials, see MATRIX DATA
. For information on defining
complex data files that cannot be defined with DATA LIST
, see FILE TYPE
and REPEATING DATA
. For information
on reading IBM® SPSS® Statistics data files and
portable files, see GET
and IMPORT
.
The program can also read data files created by other
software applications. Commands that read these files include GET CAPTURE
and GET TRANSLATE
.
Options
Data Source. You can use inline data or data from an external file.
Data Formats. You can define numeric
(with or without decimal places) and string variables using an array
of input formats (percent, dollar, date and time, and so forth). You
can also specify column binary and unaligned positive integer binary
formats (available only if used with the MODE
=MULTIPUNCH
setting
on the FILE HANDLE
command).
Data Organization. You can define data that are in fixed format (values in the same
location on the same record for each case), in freefield format with
multiple cases per record, or in freefield format with one case on
each record using the FIXED
, FREE
, and LIST
keywords.
Multiple Records. For fixed-format data, you can indicate
the number of records per case on the RECORDS
subcommand. You can specify which records to read in the variable
definition portion of DATA LIST
.
Summary
Table. For fixed-format data, you can display a table
that summarizes the variable definitions using the TABLE
subcommand. You can suppress this
table using NOTABLE
.
Value Delimiter. For freefield-format data (keywords FREE
and LIST
), you can specify
the character(s) that separate data values, or you can use the keyword TAB
to specify the tab character as the
delimiter. Any delimiter other than the TAB
keyword must be enclosed in quotation marks, and the specification
must be enclosed in parentheses, as in DATA
LIST FREE(",")
.
End-of-File Processing. You can specify
a logical variable that indicates the end of the data using the END
subcommand. This logical variable can
be used to invoke special processing after all the cases from the
data file have been read.
Basic Specification
- The basic
specification is the
FIXED
,LIST
, orFREE
keyword followed by a slash that signals the beginning of variable definition. -
FIXED
is the default. - If the data are in an external
file, the
FILE
subcommand must be used. - If the data are inline, the
FILE
subcommand is omitted and the data are specified between theBEGIN DATA
andEND DATA
commands. - Variable definition for fixed-format data includes a variable name, a column location, and a format (unless the default numeric format is used). The column location is not specified if FORTRAN-like formats are used, since these formats include the variable width.
- Variable definition for freefield data includes
a variable name and, optionally, a delimiter specification and a FORTRAN-like
format specification. If format specifications include a width and
number of decimal positions (for example,
F8.2
), the width and decimal specifications are not used to read the data but are assigned as print and write formats for the variables.
Subcommand Order
Subcommands can be named in any order. However, all subcommands must precede the first slash, which signals the beginning of variable definition.
Syntax Rules
Subcommands
on DATA LIST
are separated by
spaces or commas, not by slashes.