Multiple Response Sets
Custom Tables and the Chart Builder support a special kind of "variable" called a multiple response set. Multiple response sets aren't really "variables" in the normal sense. You can't see them in the Data Editor, and other procedures don't recognize them. Multiple response sets use multiple variables to record responses to questions where the respondent can give more than one answer. Multiple response sets are treated like categorical variables, and most of the things you can do with categorical variables, you can also do with multiple response sets.
Multiple response sets are constructed from multiple variables in the data file. A multiple response set is a special construct within a data file. You can define and save multiple response sets in IBM® SPSS® Statistics data files, but you cannot import or export multiple response sets from/to other file formats. You can copy multiple response sets from other IBM SPSS Statistics data files using Copy Data Properties, which is accessed from the Data menu in the Data Editor window. See the topic Copying Data Properties for more information.