Setting measurement level for variables with unknown measurement level

For some procedures, measurement level can affect the results or determine which features are available, and you cannot access the dialogs for these procedures until all variables have a defined measurement level. The Set Measurement Level for Unknown dialog allows you to define measurement level for any variables with an unknown measurement level without performing a data pass (which may be time-consuming for large data files).

Under certain conditions, the measurement level for some or all numeric variables (fields) in a file may be unknown. These conditions include:

  • Numeric variables from Excel 95 or later files, text data files, or data base sources prior to the first data pass.
  • New numeric variables created with transformation commands prior to the first data pass after creation of those variables.

These conditions apply primarily to reading data or creating new variables via command syntax. Dialogs for reading data and creating new transformed variables automatically perform a data pass that sets the measurement level, based on the default measurement level rules.

To set the measurement level for variables with an unknown measurement level

  1. In the alert dialog that appears for the procedure, click Assign Manually.

    or

  2. From the menus, choose:

    Data > Set Measurement Level for Unknown

  3. Move variables (fields) from the source list to the appropriate measurement level destination list.
  • Nominal. A variable can be treated as nominal when its values represent categories with no intrinsic ranking (for example, the department of the company in which an employee works). Examples of nominal variables include region, postal code, and religious affiliation.
  • Ordinal. A variable can be treated as ordinal when its values represent categories with some intrinsic ranking (for example, levels of service satisfaction from highly dissatisfied to highly satisfied). Examples of ordinal variables include attitude scores representing degree of satisfaction or confidence and preference rating scores.
  • Continuous. A variable can be treated as scale (continuous) when its values represent ordered categories with a meaningful metric, so that distance comparisons between values are appropriate. Examples of scale variables include age in years and income in thousands of dollars.

This dialog pastes VARIABLE LEVEL command syntax.