Date:         Wed, 18 Dec 2002 14:06:57 -0500
Reply-To:     "Hetter, Rebecca D,, DMDCWEST" <HETTERRD@osd.pentagon.mil>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Hetter, Rebecca D,, DMDCWEST" <HETTERRD@osd.pentagon.mil>
Subject:      Re: Isolating a variable
Comments: To: Sharon Jones <sjones@informingchange.com>
Content-Type: text/plain

Sharon,

Using "save outfile" with the subcommand "keep=" is one way to do it.

Let the variable to be kept be "MYVAR" and "KEPT.SAV"  an SPSS system file
that will contains just this variable.  The syntax is:

SAVE OUTFILE       KEPT.SAV/KEEP= MYVAR .

To read this file you would use:
GET FILE        KEPT.SAV .

If you would like to also keep an ID for each record,  then

SAVE OUTFILE   KEPT.SAV/KEEP= ID  MYVAR .

If you prefer to save the variable in a text file:

WRITE OUTFILE   KEPT.TXT/ MYVAR * .
EXECUTE.




Rebecca D. Hetter
Personnel Testing Division
Defense Manpower Data Center
400 Gigling Rd, Seaside, CA 93955
(831) 583-2400  Ext 4231

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sharon Jones [SMTP:sjones@informingchange.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 10:23 AM
> To:   SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Isolating a variable
>
> I would like to take one variable out of a large data set for merging with
> another dataset.  I tried to delete all of the other variables in the
> file,
> thus creating a new file with just that variable, but SPSS keeps crashing.
> Does someone have some syntax to do this?
>
> Thanks,
> Sharon