*SPSS syntax example by www.spss-tutorials.com.

*Set up data with single string variable.

data list free/id (a1).
begin data
a b c d e f g
end data.

*Set string variable to scale (= metric).

variable levels id(scale).

*Add single numeric variable.

compute v1 = 0.

*Although id = scale, no descriptives are created because it's still a string variable.

descriptives id v1.