Chapter 5
Opening Data Files
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding the SPSS file format
Reading a simple text file into SPSS
Transferring data from another application into SPSS
Saving SPSS data in various formats
You don’t need to put your data into the computer more than once. If you have your data in another program, you can import it from there into SPSS — because every program worth using has some form of output that can serve as input to SPSS. This chapter discusses ways to transfer data into and out of SPSS.
Sometimes you won’t get variable names when you import data from other software, but you can fix that problem in variable view.
Getting Acquainted with the SPSS File Format
SPSS uses its own format, the .sav extension, for storing data and writing files. The file format contains special codes and usually can’t be used to export your data to another application. Instead, the file format is used only for saving SPSS data that you want to read back into SPSS at a later time.
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