This page describes how data can be loaded into SPSS for Windows (Version 8 or Version 10), either in the form of a system file, like the example data files that can be downloaded from these web pages, or in the form of a text file containing a data matrix (see Chapter 5 in the book).

Once a data file has been read into SPSS for Windows, the secondary analyst can manipulate the data and carry out statistical analyses using them. Following the links given below allows the reader to replicate the example statistical analyses in Chapter 9 of the book (though the data files that can be downloaded from these web pages can, of course, be used for other interesting analyses that readers think up for themselves):

• Manipulating and saving data within SPSS for Windows. (manisave.html)
• Analysing cross-tabulated data with chi-square and Cramer's V (linked to examples in Chapter 9 of the book). [This page includes material on recoding variables to produce new versions of those variables]. (crosanal.html)
• Analysing multi-way cross-tabulations using log-linear models (linked to an example in Chapter 9 of the book). (mwayanal.html)
• Analysing relationships involving interval-level variables (linked to examples in Chapter 9 of the book). (intanal.html)

(such as BSA91.SAV or SCELI.SAV)

If data have been set up for analysis using SPSS for Windows then the file that the data are in will be either an SPSS system file, with the suffix .sav (e.g. bsa91.sav), or an SPSS portable file, with the suffix .por (e.g. bsa91.por). Older portable files, referred to as export files, may have the suffix .exp.

To read in data from a system file or a portable file, load SPSS for Windows, click on 'Cancel' to remove the first menu that appears, and use the mouse and pointer to click on File (which is located in the menu bar towards the top of the screen), then to click on Open in the resulting menu (and then to click on Data... if you are using Version 10 of SPSS). The type of file to be read in and its location can be specified within the resulting menu, and the file can then be read in by clicking on 'Open'.

To read in ASCII data, i.e. data from a text file, load SPSS for Windows, click on 'Cancel' to remove the first menu that appears, and use the mouse and pointer to click on File and then on Read ASCII data (or Read Text Data in Version 10 of SPSS), and then on Fixed Columns. Once you have specified the name of the file containing the data (the file will usually be in a fixed format and may have the suffix .dat), the next stage is to define the data. The screen dump that follows shows the resulting menu, within which one needs to specify the name, location and form of each variable to be read into SPSS. In the screen dump the researcher is currently specifying that the variable CLASS is in the 8th and 9th columns of record number 1 for each case (respondent) and is numeric in form; this variable can then be added to the list of Defined Variables: by clicking on Add. (In Version 10 of SPSS, once you have located the data file, specified its type and clicked on 'Open', you then should follow the steps identified by the 'Text Input Wizard').

(Menu within Data Editor, followed by close-up)