Blog
Our blog holds a collection of tutorials that don't really fit into any meaningful category but we wanted to write them anyway.
The tutorials below cover all sorts of SPSS related best practices, tips, tricks, bugs and pitfalls. Suggestions for new posts are always appreciated!
July 2017
SPSS ALTER TYPE Reporting Wrong Values?
SPSS version 24 seems to have a bug in the ALTER TYPE command: it reports different values than it actually creates. This tutorial replicates the problem. Read More
June 2017
SPSS – How to fix “Your license will expire in … days”?
If SPSS says that your license will expire in ... days, you can fix the issue by running law.exe and entering your authorization code into the wizard. Read More
November 2016
SPSS – Kendall’s Condordance Coefficient W
Get Kendall’s concordance coefficient W for interrater agreement from SPSS in 3 simple steps. With practice data file, screenshots and syntax. Read More
October 2016
Names and Labels in Output
In output, you can choose whether you'd like to see variable names, labels or both. The same holds for values. This tutorial shows how to modify these settings and the effects of doing so. Read More
SPSS Main Statistical Functions
SPSS statistical functions are mostly straightforward. This tutorial walks you through the main ones and points out some tips, tricks and pitfalls. Read More
SPSS Sum – Cautionary Note
In SPSS, "SUM(v1,v2)" is not always equivalent to "v1 + v2". This tutorial explains the difference and shows how to make the right choice here. Read More
SPSS Basic Operators
SPSS basic operators are mainly used with IF, DO IF and COMPUTE. They work mostly as you'd expect but they do have a couple of surprises in store. No worries, we'll walk you through. Read More
September 2016
SPSS – Foreign Currencies Tutorial
Using Euro signs or other foreign currencies in SPSS is pretty easy. This tutorial shows how it's done with some tips for creating pretier output. Read More
SPSS Main Numeric Functions
This tutorial explains and demonstrates SPSS' main numeric functions. Some tips and tricks will be included along the way. Read More
SPSS Keywords
Using SPSS keywords, especially TO and ALL greatly speeds up a myriad of typical tasks. This tutorial walks you through SPSS main keywords and points out how they can save time and effort. Read More
August 2016
SPSS – Five Handy System Settings
Get better results faster by learning a handful of SPSS system settings. This tutorial demonstrates the 5 most useful ones along with examples. Read More
Convert Characters to Codepoints and Reversely
SPSS can convert characters into their numeric representations ("codepoints"). This is often handy and sometimes even necessary. This tutorial shows how to use this for solving two common issues. Read More
SPSS Datasets Tutorial 1 – Basics
SPSS dataset logic is not always logical. However, for working proficiently with datasets, just a handful of basics is sufficient. These are explained in this tutorial. Read More
Two Digit Year in String – Cautionary Note
When converting a string variable to a date variable, it's unclear to which century two digit years belong. By default, SPSS presumes all two digit years fall between 69 years prior to the current year and 30 years ahead of the current year. If this doesn't hold for your data, you can change this behavior by setting a different EPOCH. Read More
July 2016
SPSS Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts allow you to work with amazing speed. Some SPSS shortkeys may be obvious for MS Windows users but others are less so. A quick overview is presented below. Read More
SPSS Command Types
Get things done faster in SPSS by understanding its three basic command types: transformations, procedures and other SPSS commands. Read More
Compute A = B = C
A great way to dichotomize variables is with a single short compute command. This is also the fastest way to create multi variable filters. Read More
Combine Dichotomous Variables
Two or more dichotomous variables can be combined into a single variable without losing information. The basic trick here is to concatenate their value labels into a string variable and use AUTORECODE. Read More
June 2016
SPSS – Open CSV Data File
Opening .csv data in SPSS is easy if you understand some basics. This tutorial (with downloadable .csv file) walks you through the right steps. Read More
SPSS Numeric Variables Basics
Having a basic understanding of SPSS numeric variables allows you to work fast and with a sense of confidence. This tutorial aims at accomplishing just that by pointing out some essential basics. Read More
Overview All SPSS Commands
Overview of all SPSS commands in a single table with links, notes and SPSS version in which they were introduced. Downloadable as SPSS data file. Read More
Combine Categorical Variables
Many easy options have been proposed for combining the values of categorical variables in SPSS. However, the real information is usually in the value labels instead of the values. This tutorial proposes a simple trick for combining categorical variables and automatically applying correct value labels to the result. Read More