Hi

The best way to automate this is to use a macro.

*////////////////. DEFINE !addvar ( func = !CHAREND('/') /var = !CHAREND('/') /breakvr = !DEFAULT(nobreak) !CHAREND('/') /newvar= !CHAREND('/') /file = !TOKENS(1))

GET FILE = !file. !IF (!UPCASE(!breakvr)='NOBREAK') !THEN COMPUTE nobreak=1. !IFEND SORT CASES BY !breakvr. !LET !f=!func AGGREGATE OUTFILE = "c:\temp\aggr.sav" /PRESORTED /BREAK = !breakvr !DO !new !IN (!newvar) /!new = !HEAD(!f)(!var) !LET !f=!TAIL(!f)!DOEND. MATCH FILES FILE = * /TABLE = "c:\temp\aggr.sav" /BY=!breakvr. EXECUTE. !ENDDEFINE. *////////////////.

SET MPRINT=yes. * Example 1: Add variable meansal to the Employee data.sav file; where meansal contains mean salary of that jobcat. !addvar func=mean /var=salary /breakvr=jobcat /newvar=meansal /file='c:\program files\spss\employee data.sav'.

* Example 2: Add variable sdsal to the Employee data.sav file; where sdsal contains the sd of salary. !addvar func=sd /var=salary /newvar=sdsal /file='c:\program files\spss\employee data.sav'.

* Example 3: Add mean, sd and max of salary to Employee data.sav. !addvar func=mean sd max /var=salary /newvar=meansal sdsal maxsal /file='c:\program files\spss\employee data.sav'.

Note that for convenience, the macro could be saved in a file called "utils.sps" then only two commands would be reequired to add variables:

INCLUDE "path\utils.sps" !addvar func=mean sd max /var=salary /newvar=meansal sdsal maxsal /file='c:\program files\spss\employee data.sav'.

Regards

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

-----Original Message----- From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of Mitrakos Theodoros Sent: September 12, 2003 3:07 AM To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: It's simple but takes time

Dear all

When working in SPSS sometimes I want to create a new variable (or better a memory variable or a constant) with the sum (or the variance or the maximum value) of an existing in my data file variable. The only solution that I have found for the time being is that: the use of aggregate command in order to save in another file the sum (or the variance or the maximum value) of the existing variable and then I merge this file with the original one .... This procedure takes time and risk for error. I am looking for somthing easier. Could I create a memory variable or a constant containing the sum of an existing variable?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

M. Theo.