spssdictionary.GetVariableAttributes Function (R)

spssdictionary.GetVariableAttributes(variable,attrName). Returns the value(s) for the specified variable and attribute in the active dataset. The argument variable can be a character string specifying the variable name or an integer specifying the index value of the variable (index values represent position in the dataset, starting with 0 for the first variable in file order). Variable names must match case with the names as they exist in the active dataset's dictionary. The argument attrName is a character string that specifies the name of the attribute--for instance, a name returned by GetVariableAttributeNames.

• In the case that the specified attribute is an array, the returned value is a vector containing the attribute values.

Example

#Create a list of variables with a specified attribute and value
varList <- vector()
dict <- spssdictionary.GetDictionaryFromSPSS()
varnames <- dict["varName",]
attr <- "demographicvartypes"
val <- "2"
for (name in varnames){
   attrNames <- spssdictionary.GetVariableAttributeNames(name)
   if(any(attr==attrNames)){
      if(any(val==spssdictionary.GetVariableAttributes(name,attr)))
         varList <- c(varList,name)
   }
}
{if (length(varList) > 0){
   cat(paste("Variables with attribute value ",val,
             " for attribute ",attr,":\n"))
   cat(varList,sep="\n")}
else
   cat(paste("No variables have the attribute value ",val,
             " for attribute ",attr))
}