When we start analyzing a data file, we first inspect our data for a number of common problems. For instance, we want to be sure that variables have the right formats, don't contain any weird values and have plausible distributions. The table below proposes which steps should be taken and in which order.
For getting the most out of these tutorials, we encourage you to follow along by downloading and opening hotel_evaluation.sav.

SPSS Data Preparation - Overview Main Steps

SPSS Data Preparation - Workflow

So how do we perform these checks in practice? We propose you first perform steps 1-3 since they involve the entire data file.
Next, we inspect each variable in our data -from top to bottom- separately. If the variable is categorical, we create a frequency table with a bar chart. If the variable is metric, we run a histogram. Based on this output, we perform steps 4-8.
All output for these steps is created with simple FREQUENCIES commands, which can take multiple variables at once. You may consider running these for groups of (similarly coded) variables rather than variables separately.
After inspecting -and possibly correcting- each variable, we round up with step 9.