SPSS transformations between DO IF ... and END IF are applied only to cases (rows of data) that satisfy one or more conditions. In many cases, IF is a faster way to accomplish the same results.

SPSS Do If Example

Say we'd like to convert people's monthly income into income classes. We may want to use different cut off points for male and female respondents. In this case, we can first use a RECODE command only for cases whose gender is female. Next, we'll use a different RECODE command for males. The syntax below demonstrates this, using employees.sav.

SPSS Do If Syntax Example 1

Else If

Although the previous syntax does its job, there's a shorter way to accomplish the exact same result: ELSE IF ... This means that the commands that follow are carried out only for cases who 1) satisfy the current condition(s) and 2) don't satisfy any of the previous conditions. The syntax below shows how to use it.

SPSS Do If Syntax Example 2

Else

In a similar vein to ELSE IF ... commands that follow ELSE are carried out for all cases who don't satisfy any of the previous conditions. An important thing to notice here is that ELSE does not include cases for whom previous conditions could not be evaluated due to missing values.
The final syntax example demonstrates this by creating a birth decennium variable using XDATE. Next, FREQUENCIES confirms that respondents whose birthday is unknown are not assigned to any birth decennium.

SPSS Do If Syntax Example 3

Note

Only SPSS transformation commands can be used within DO IF. These exclude most commands that generate output such as FREQUENCIES and DESCRIPTIVES. For using such commands on subsets of cases, see FILTER, SPLIT FILE and SELECT IF.