Hi Susan

The follwing automatically right align all string variables in the file.

DATA LIST LIST /str1(A12) nb(F2) str4(A4) nb2(F2) st19(A8). BEGIN DATA a 1 dd 2 jkjikkk ab 2 a 3 uu END DATA. LIST.

DO REPEAT var=ALL. DO IF LENGTH(var)>0. COMPUTE var=LPAD(RTRIM(var),LENGTH(var)). VARIABLE ALIGNMENT var(RIGHT). END IF. END REPEAT. EXECUTE.

*FYI the command DO IF LENGTH(var)>0 generates an error when var is numeric but this not important. The syntax behaves as required.

Regards

Raynald Levesque rlevesque@videotron.ca Visit my SPSS Pages http://pages.infinit.net/rlevesqu/index.htm

-----Original Message----- From: Cardwell, Susan [mailto:susan.cardwell@mwsu.edu] Sent: November 22, 2002 9:32 AM To: 'Raynald Levesque' Subject: RE: string variable WILL right justify (was 123)

Raynald, Thanks so much for the syntax. Prior suggestions did not make use of LPAD. I see that all i'm doing is transferring the padding from R to L. Simple. We did not have this problem in spss 10.0. I have one other questions regarding this process. I have many variables to right justify. In compute syntax isn't it true that i can only COMPUTE one variable at a time? The majority of my strings are A8 and I'd love to not have to write COMPUTE 60 times or so. Thank you, Susan PS. You're so clever and quick with your answers to the really hard questions posed. Is this what you do for a living?

-----Original Message----- From: Raynald Levesque [mailto:rlevesque@videotron.ca] Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 6:49 PM To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Cc: Cardwell, Susan Subject: RE: string variable WILL right justify (was 123)

Hi Susan,

Say a variable str1 is an A8 string variable. When the value assigned to str1 has less than 8 characters, SPSS pads the right of the string with blanks. This is why when the "right align" feature of the variable is set, the data editor does not *appear* to be right align. In fact cells content are right align but the blanks at the end produce the wrong impression.

This is easy to fix as is shown by the following syntax:

DATA LIST LIST /str1(A8). BEGIN DATA a ab abc abcd abcde abcdef abcdefg abcdefgh END DATA. LIST.

COMPUTE str1=LPAD(RTRIM(str1),8). VARIABLE ALIGNMENT str1(RIGHT). EXECUTE.

The compute statement removes any trailing blanks and replaces them by beginning blanks. That way, data are right align in the data viewer.

Have fun!

Raynald Levesque rlevesque@videotron.ca Visit my SPSS Pages http://pages.infinit.net/rlevesqu/index.htm

-----Original Message----- From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of Cardwell, Susan Sent: November 21, 2002 8:51 AM To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: 123

folks, we don't have a problem with importing excel into spss. the data is stable and prior to spss version 11.5 the columns were fine. however, as i mentioned in here before, with 11.5 the string variable columns will not right justify. it's frustrating to cruise through the data looking for patterns (unless i left justify, which is awkward because of the alpha variable to its left), and spss has responded with the promise of a future fix-it patch. susan