Defining Value Labels and Other Variable Properties

The Define Variable Properties main dialog box provides the following information for the scanned variables:

Scanned Variable List. For each scanned variable, a check mark in the Unlabeled (U.) column indicates that the variable contains values without assigned value labels.

To sort the variable list to display all variables with unlabeled values at the top of the list:

  1. Click the Unlabeled column heading under Scanned Variable List.

You can also sort by variable name or measurement level by clicking the corresponding column heading under Scanned Variable List.

Value Label Grid

  • Label. Displays any value labels that have already been defined. You can add or change labels in this column.
  • Value. Unique values for each selected variable. This list of unique values is based on the number of scanned cases. For example, if you scanned only the first 100 cases in the data file, then the list reflects only the unique values present in those cases. If the data file has already been sorted by the variable for which you want to assign value labels, the list may display far fewer unique values than are actually present in the data.
  • Count. The number of times each value occurs in the scanned cases.
  • Missing. Values defined as representing missing data. You can change the missing values designation of the category by clicking the check box. A check indicates that the category is defined as a user-missing category. If a variable already has a range of values defined as user-missing (for example, 90-99), you cannot add or delete missing values categories for that variable with Define Variable Properties. You can use Variable View in the Data Editor to modify the missing values categories for variables with missing values ranges. See the topic Missing values for more information.
  • Changed. Indicates that you have added or changed a value label.
  1. To change or add a value label, simply enter the text of the value label in the Label column.
  2. If there are values for which you want to create value labels but those values are not displayed, you can enter values in the Value column below the last scanned value.

Note: If you specified 0 for the number of cases to scan in the initial dialog box, the Value Label grid will initially be blank, except for any preexisting value labels and/or defined missing values categories for the selected variable. In addition, the Suggest button for the measurement level will be disabled.

Measurement Level. Value labels are primarily useful for categorical (nominal and ordinal) variables, and some procedures treat categorical and scale variables differently; so it is sometimes important to assign the correct measurement level. However, by default, all new numeric variables are assigned the scale measurement level. Thus, many variables that are in fact categorical may initially be displayed as scale.

If you are unsure of what measurement level to assign to a variable, click Suggest.

Role. Some dialogs support the ability to pre-select variables for analysis based on defined roles. See the topic Roles for more information.

Copy Properties. You can copy value labels and other variable properties from another variable to the currently selected variable or from the currently selected variable to one or more other variables.

Unlabeled Values. To create labels for unlabeled values automatically, click Automatic Labels.

Variable Label and Display Format

You can change the descriptive variable label and the display format.

  • You cannot change the variable's fundamental type (string or numeric).
  • For string variables, you can change only the variable label, not the display format.
  • For numeric variables, you can change the numeric type (such as numeric, date, dollar, or custom currency), width (maximum number of digits, including any decimal and/or grouping indicators), and number of decimal positions.
  • For numeric date format, you can select a specific date format (such as dd-mm-yyyy, mm/dd/yy, and yyyyddd)
  • For numeric custom format, you can select one of five custom currency formats (CCA through CCE). See the topic Currency options for more information.
  • An asterisk is displayed in the Value column if the specified width is less than the width of the scanned values or the displayed values for preexisting defined value labels or missing values categories.
  • A period (.) is displayed if the scanned values or the displayed values for preexisting defined value labels or missing values categories are invalid for the selected display format type. For example, an internal numeric value of less than 86,400 is invalid for a date format variable.