Text Data Files (MATCH FILES command)

You can add variables from one or more text data files by reading the files into IBM® SPSS® Statistics (with DATA LIST or GET DATA), defining dataset names for each file (DATASET NAME command), and then using MATCH FILES to add the cases from each file.

Example

DATA LIST FILE="/data/textdata1.txt"
  /id 1-3 var1 5-7 var2 9-12.
SORT CASES by ID.
DATASET NAME file1.
DATA LIST FILE="/data/textdata2.txt"
  /id 1-3 var3 5-9 var4 11-15.
SORT CASES BY ID.
DATASET NAME file2.
DATA LIST FILE="/data/textdata3.txt"
  /id 1-3 var5 5-6 var6 8-10.
DATASET NAME file3.
MATCH FILES FILE='file1'
  /FILE='file2'
  /FILE='file3'
  /BY id.
SAVE OUTFILE='/data/combined_data.sav'.