Summary
Reading multiple sheet Excel workbooks into SPSS is easily done with this Custom Dialog. This tutorial demonstrates how to use it.
Before You Start

- Make sure you have the SPSS Python Essentials installed.
- Download and install the xlrd module.
- If you'd like to generate some test data as done in the syntax example, you'll need the xlwt module as well.
- Download and install Excel to SPSS Tool. Note that this is an SPSS custom dialog. You'll now find under .
- Close all datasets in SPSS.
SPSS Syntax Example for Generating Test Data
* Create some small Excel workbooks for testing.
begin program.
rdir=r'd:\temp' # Specify folder for writing test files.
import xlwt,random,datetime,os
fmt = xlwt.easyxf(num_format_str='M/D/YY')
wBooks = ["book_" + str(cnt) for cnt in range(1,5)]
for noSheets,wBook in enumerate(wBooks):
wb=xlwt.Workbook()
for sheetNo in range(noSheets + 1):
ws=wb.add_sheet("sheet_%d"%(sheetNo + 1))
for col,cont in enumerate(['date','ID','JobTitle','Revenue']):
ws.write(0,col,cont)
for row in range(1,6):
ws.write(row,0,datetime.datetime(2008 + sheetNo,1,1) + datetime.timedelta(days=random.randrange(1,365)),fmt)
ws.write(row,1,random.choice([None,104,21,60,2,1030]))
ws.write(row,2,random.choice([None,'Developer','Tester','Manager']))
ws.write(row,3,random.randrange(40,80)*1000)
wb.save(os.path.join(rdir,wBook + '.xls'))
end program.
begin program.
rdir=r'd:\temp' # Specify folder for writing test files.
import xlwt,random,datetime,os
fmt = xlwt.easyxf(num_format_str='M/D/YY')
wBooks = ["book_" + str(cnt) for cnt in range(1,5)]
for noSheets,wBook in enumerate(wBooks):
wb=xlwt.Workbook()
for sheetNo in range(noSheets + 1):
ws=wb.add_sheet("sheet_%d"%(sheetNo + 1))
for col,cont in enumerate(['date','ID','JobTitle','Revenue']):
ws.write(0,col,cont)
for row in range(1,6):
ws.write(row,0,datetime.datetime(2008 + sheetNo,1,1) + datetime.timedelta(days=random.randrange(1,365)),fmt)
ws.write(row,1,random.choice([None,104,21,60,2,1030]))
ws.write(row,2,random.choice([None,'Developer','Tester','Manager']))
ws.write(row,3,random.randrange(40,80)*1000)
wb.save(os.path.join(rdir,wBook + '.xls'))
end program.
Reading All Data Into SPSS
Since we created our test data in
d:\temp
, this folder will hold the Excel files. We can simply copy-paste this into the dialog. Other than that, we don't have to change anything. The first row holds the variable names and we'd like all sheets from all workbooks to be read.Description
- By default, the program will read in all .xls files in a folder specified by the user.
- By default, all data from all sheets will be imported. The default of all sheets can be overridden by specifying one or more sheets (see below).
- In order for this to make sense, all sheets in all workbooks are assumed to have similar formats (numbers of columns, column contents).
- By default, it is assumed that the first row of each sheet contains column names. If these conflict, the column names of the last sheet of the last workbook that's read will be used. If no column names are present,
column_1
,column_2
and so on will be used as variable names in SPSS.
Converting Date Variables
Date variables in the Excel files are not automatically converted to SPSS date variables. After reading in the data, they can be converted with the syntax below.
* Convert "date" to date format.
compute date=datesum(date.dmy(30,12,1899),date,"days").
format date(edate10).
exe.
compute date=datesum(date.dmy(30,12,1899),date,"days").
format date(edate10).
exe.
What if I Don't Want All Sheets to be Read?
- In this case, the desired sheets can be specified. Note that the first sheet is referenced by 1 (rather than 0).
- If two or more sheets are to be read, separate them with commas.
- If sheets that are specified do not exist in one or more workbooks, the command will not run. An error message will indicate the first workbook where this occurred.
What if I Don't Want All Workbooks to be Read?
This default can not be overridden. A workaround may be to move irrelevant workbooks to a different folder.
THIS TUTORIAL HAS 17 COMMENTS:
By Ruben Geert van den Berg on June 21st, 2018
Hi Kim!
That's a lot of workbooks but each one holding a single sheet renders the structure of the problem fairly simple. If you master some Python, you could use
os.walk
for collecting all paths to all workbooks and have SPSS loop over them and convert them to .sav files withGET TRANSLATE
as pasted from SPSS menu. You could then merge these .sav files -which may require things like adjusting string lengths.I recently worked on a similar problem involving 52 inconsistently coded SPSS data files. It was a lot of work (and computing time) but still very manageable (and profitable for me as it made me 3 monthly salaries in a week).
Also see Adjust String Lengths before Merging Files and Merge Many Data Files. Both are pretty outdated but they basically get the job done.
By Gilbert on April 14th, 2020
I tried to export data from excel to SPSS, in the process the sheet that was read was the data dictionary. Now I can't see the other sheets and opening the excel workbook, the sheets ate all missing. I urgently need your help on how to retrieve the lost sheets .
Thank you