Hi,
For my Bachelor end project i'm working in SPSS. This is my question:
Imagine i have one variable and this is the database:
Var1:
p1: 2
p2: 3
p3: -99
p4: 0
p5: 2
I would like to alter this variable 1 and add one to every score so it becomes like this:
Var1:
p1: 3
p2: 4
p3: -99
p4: 1
p5: 3
The thing is; I do know how to do this by simply computing a new variable (just var1 + 1), but the problem is that I don't want to compute a new variable, I just want to keep the variable as it is and alter it. Does anyone know how i can make this possible in SPSS?
Hi Julia,
Based on your example I assume you want to increase all values except -99 by one unit. In the syntax windon you can enter the following code and run it:
if(var1 ~= -99) var1 = var1 + 1.
execute.
If you are using the point-and-click window, you have to select cases that are not equal to the value -99 (Transform / Compute variable / If-button (bottom left in the compute-window), select "include if satisfies condition" and type "var1 ~= -99" in the box, click continue) and then set "var1" as target variable and type "var1 + 1" in the numeric expression box.
Generally, it is not a good idea to alter the orginal variables. If you make a mistake, you cannot undo computations in SPSS. Of course you can always revert to a saved file (as long as you don't overwrite it with the new computations), but that can be cumbersome if you need to go back to it frequently. If you can't change the variable names may be you could copy the values to new variables for safe keeping, e.g. compute oldvar1 = var1. At least make a backup copy of your original data.
Regards,
Timo
What is the rationale behind this limitation? This made the question much more complicated.
you can just do it in excel with a simple function like writing into a new column: = a1 + 1
then drag and apply to the rest of cells in the column
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