Some SPSS commands such as RECODE and ALTER TYPE can make irreversible changes to variables. Before using these, I like to clone the variables that I'm about to edit. This allows me to compare the edited to the original versions.
This tutorial presents a super easy tool for making exact clones of variables in SPSS. We'll use bank-clean.sav (partly shown below) for all examples.
Prerequisites & Installation
Installing this tool requires
- SPSS version 24 or higher with
- the SPSS Python 3 essentials installed.
Recent SPSS versions usually meet these requirements.
Download our tool from SPSS_TUTORIALS_CLONE_VARIABLES.spe. You can install it from as shown below.
After completing these steps, you'll find SPSS tutorials - Clone Variables under Transform.
Clone Variables Example I
Let's first clone jtype -short for job type- as illustrated below.
Completing these steps results in the SPSS syntax below. Let's run it.
SPSS_TUTORIALS_CLONE_VARIABLES VARIABLES=jtype
/OPTIONS FIX="c" FIXTYPE=PREFIX ACTION=RUN.
Result
Note that SPSS has now added a new variable to our data: cjtype as shown below.
Except for its name, cjtype is an exact clone of jtype: it has the same
- variable type and format;
- value labels;
- user missing values;
- and so on...
There's one minor issue with our first example: the syntax we just pasted only runs on SPSS installations with our tool installed.
The solution for this is to have the tool print native syntax instead: this syntax is typically (much) longer but it does run on any SPSS installation. Our second examples illustrates how to do just that.
Clone Variables Example II
Let's create native syntax for cloning a couple of different variables, including a string variable and a date variable.
This option has our tool print native syntax into our output window.
Because we chose to print (rather than run) syntax, this is one of the rare occasions at which we click Ok instead of Paste.
Result
Note that we now have native syntax for cloning several variables in our output window.
For actually running this syntax, we can simply copy-paste-run it in a syntax window.The entire syntax is shown below.
STRING clast_name (A30).
RECODE last_name (ELSE = COPY) INTO clast_name.
APPLY DICTIONARY FROM * /SOURCE VARIABLES = last_name /TARGET VARIABLES = clast_name.
RECODE gender (ELSE = COPY) INTO cgender.
APPLY DICTIONARY FROM * /SOURCE VARIABLES = gender /TARGET VARIABLES = cgender.
RECODE dob (ELSE = COPY) INTO cdob.
APPLY DICTIONARY FROM * /SOURCE VARIABLES = dob /TARGET VARIABLES = cdob.
RECODE educ (ELSE = COPY) INTO ceduc.
APPLY DICTIONARY FROM * /SOURCE VARIABLES = educ /TARGET VARIABLES = ceduc.
If our tool creates very long syntax, you could copy it into a separate file and run it from an INSERT command.
Right, I guess that should cover this simple but handy little tool. Hope you'll give it a try and hope you'll find it helpful. If you've any remarks, feel free to throw me a quick comment below.
Thanks for reading!
THIS TUTORIAL HAS 40 COMMENTS:
By Andreas Delaere on July 28th, 2021
Dear Ruben
Thanks a lot for your answer.
It works like a charm now!
Thank you very much!
Kind regards
Andreas
By Tim on September 6th, 2021
Hi Ruben,
Your tool has saved me many hours of recoding old variables into new ones, I appreciate your work. Recently, I installed SPSS 27, which required me to reinstall your extension bundle. When attempting to execute an SPSSTUTORIALS CLONE VARIABLE COMMAND, I am told that
>Error # 8500. Command name: BEGIN PROGRAM
>Python 2 is no longer installed with IBM SPSS Statistics. It is recommended
>that you use a Python 3.8.x distribution (BEGIN PROGRAM PYTHON3). You must
>update your Python 2 path for each Statistics application. For SPSS
>Statistics client, set the path in Edit > Options... > File Locations; for
>SPSS Statistics Server, set the path in the spssdxcfg.ini file.
>Execution of this command stops.
Besides specifying a Python 2.7 path, is there another workaround you would recommend?
Thanks!
By Tim on September 6th, 2021
Hi Ruben,
Please ignore my previous comment, I have found my answer in the previous comments! Thanks again
By Ali on September 21st, 2021
Hi Ruben,
I am still receiving the error message below despite I following the steps you mentioned on previous comments;
>Error # 8500. Command name: BEGIN PROGRAM
>Python 2 is no longer installed with IBM SPSS Statistics. It is recommended
>that you use a Python 3.8.x distribution (BEGIN PROGRAM PYTHON3). You must
>update your Python 2 path for each Statistics application. For SPSS
>Statistics client, set the path in Edit > Options... > File Locations; for
>SPSS Statistics Server, set the path in the spssdxcfg.ini file.
>Execution of this command stops.
I am using SPSS 28. How can I solve this problem?
Tahnks,
Ali
By Ruben Geert van den Berg on September 21st, 2021
Hi Ali!
Please use the new version at SPSS_TUTORIALS_CLONE_VARIABLES.spe.
I just checked and this is the Python3 version.
If you still get an error, try closing off SPSS altogether and restart it. If that still doesn't help, let me know, ok?
Hope that helps!
SPSS tutorials