SPSS for newbies: Basic data transformation; and data management Video Lecture | SPSS: For Beginners - Data & Analytics

hello everyone Phil from Statistics
mentor.com
a question I get asked quite often is
how do you create new variables from
existing ones so in this video I'm going
to show you how to create a new variable
by adding to existing variables or
subtracting to existing variables or
dividing by two existing variables and I
will use the point and click method and
I will also show you how to do it using
syntax because I know some of you need
to know about using these commands okay
so let's say we got two variables d2 and
d1 say there are some scores from an
experiment on the two six different
situations now let's create a new
variable by adding the two variables d1
d2 how do we do that
using a point and click method we go
transform compute variable a window pops
up now you should look vacant like this
old box it should look vacant except for
this one with the variables first thing
target variable that is the name of our
new variable and it's the nickname so we
have to keep this short with no spaces
because whatever we type into target
variable cell will end up in the data
window up here like d1 d2 so you know
that in these cases now we have to have
it short with no spaces so let's call
this sums going to cut them okay now
to create the sum we just click one of
them you can double click or use this
arrow here to transfer into numeric
expressions let's do that and then we'll
go plus and then d1 and the wants to
keep it as simple as possible now we
would press ok so let's do that
statistics View window comes up it just
shows you the actual code used to create
that this is this is the syntax right so
now notice we have a new column called
sum so that is the simplest as possible
I've kept that simple as possible let's
go back and look at it again for a
second look so I created it now we
rewind to the K the situation where I
did d2 plus d1 and before I press ok
right now at this stage you can actually
do another thing you can give this
target variable label and describe the
type so if we press this one label so
this is where you can give it the full
name of whatever is so some of d1 and d2
notice I use a spade and use the spaces
now because this label will appear in
your output C because sometimes you know
that the nickname that if that comes an
output it's not - it doesn't kind of
help to explain what that variable is
because that's only for your reference
when you you know that for label for the
variables label that this thing appears
on all output which should make should
make some kind of sense to the people
who are going to look at your output
okay then we press Continue the other
thing you could have done is suppose you
need to use a syntax but you can
memorize you can remember what the
commands are well if you reach your
stage and you press the paste a window
will pop up with actual what turns your
click point clicks into actual commands
press paste change existing variable
so here you go this is the actual syntax
compute is the command sum which is the
nickname that you gave it equals and
then d1 plus d2 variable labels we give
it some the label sum of d1 plus d2 then
we execute an to actually execute it you
highlight it and then you press this
play button right okay that's addition
done so let's do differences now
transform compute variable these windows
here retain the previous entries we had
made so we want to clear all that you
can do that by pressing the reset button
close everything so we want the
differences so for the nickname target
variable let's call that diff for our
reference with let's say want to look at
d2 plus d1 I can press D to do the same
thing again and divide by d1 now instead
of point and click and notice we can
also type directly into this window
which could save a lot of time D to the
divide by sine is this one down here
we could type that in by handle can
press it that I'm going to type a by
hand d1 there often a lot quicker just
to type things in rather than point and
click and then we press ok
there you go we don't need that and
difference appears let's do one law if
the ratio compute variable what do we do
we reset clear all the windows let's say
I want to do D 2 divided by D 1 let's
call this ratio D 2 did i do / before I
hope see oh yes I made a mistake the
previous one I actually well done if you
spotted it the difference is actually
the ratio and it matters even neither
here nor there
let's ratio D 2 this divides sine D 1
okay see this difference is not the
actual difference so say we made a
mistake so what this allows me to show
you someone else say we want to get rid
of a particular column you could just
cut it out like that right click and cut
say I want to undo what we did we press
this arrow here instead of getting rid
of that way we could go under the
variable view say we want to get rid of
diff again click on 4 I just press the
delete on delete button on your computer
that's quick so let's do the difference
again transform compute variables reset
diff let's see 2 minus D 1
okay now we have difference that's
better
okay so I'll show you how to use some
ratio different I'll show you how to use
a point and click method show you how to
get the syntax for those things I showed
you how to remove a column one last
thing I want to show you to do is it's
actually quite off often is quite useful
is if we've got
loads and loads of variables goes on and
on but some of them are related so we
want to kind of group them together to
kinda just to tidy things up keep things
in order
orderly we can move just like an Excel
we can just pull columns around and now
there's two ways to do this say I want
to move this diff column to the left of
some I grab point not announce there I
grab it if now there's no not like an
Excel there's no close button anything
like that but but if we move this it's
quite fiddly it's not really good right
grab that right yes so as soon as I've
got you can see how the arrow below the
arrow that something has changed there's
a square box and notice the vertical the
bold vertical line that tells you where
the new column is going to end up so say
I want to shift it left of some move
over can you see now look at the bold
line vertical line to the left of some
that's where diff is going to be
inserted I let go there so I want to do
the ratio and move it to the right of
diff I grab it my till I've got that
know what looks like a no entry sign I
shift it along there see that bold as
paired to the left of some notice that
bolded vertical line does not line up
with my arrow my arrow is actually way
off so you've got to look for the bolder
vertical line I drop okay so some of you
might like it like that I find it quite
fiddly variable view is another way to
do it again you just grab and shift and
what's in the same way white might be
better with a variable view is because
you can see a lot more the variables
that you need to keep track of to move
things around so you can see here you
can see actually one 214 you can see 14
variables whereas in data view we can
only see one
two three four five six seven eight nine
ten eleven just slightly less okay
yes okay so that's it so have a go and
see how fat you get hope this has been
helpful