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Hi,
It's been a while for me since using SPSS, but a few thoughts:
On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 23:25:30 -0500, Talbot Michael Katz <topkatz@MSN.COM>
wrote:
>(By the way, does SPSS have a list-serve comparable to SAS-L? Or
>user groups like SUGI?)
Yes, there's an SPSS listserve, also hosted at UGA:
http://listserv.uga.edu/archives/spssx-l.html
Maybe that SAS-L BOF should include not only a discussion of SAS-L stats,
but whether or not we're beating SPSSX-L? One notable difference is that
SPSS staff (tech support and statisticians) do participate in SPSSX-L
>Is "multiple missing data declaration, etc." anything comparable to PROC
MI?
SPSS allows you to create "user defined missing values" for variables. So
for sex you can define 8=missing 9=refused and for age you can define
888=missing 999=refused and for income you can define 88888888=missing
99999999=refused. Thanks, but no thanks. It's too messy, and doesn't
work with date values. SAS special missing values (.M .R) are much better
in my book.
>One of the things you often hear is that SPSS is easier to use than SAS,
>that it's more point-and-click oriented.
That is certainly my sense (again may be outdated). I haven't looked at
enterprise guide at all. Since learning SPSS (right after college) then
making the move to SAS, I've come to think that SPSS is often *too*
friendly. You open a dataset, and it opens like a spreadsheet. They try
to hide the programming interface from you unless you look for it. And
yes you can click-and-point your way through lots of analysis/data
modification (and never have code! never be able to reproduce your
results! : ), certainly easier than the old SAS/ANALYST. So you have some
folks calling themselves "data managers" who are using SPSS in scary
ways. It's easy to think that using SPSS is like using Excel.
Of course I don't mean to start an SPSS v. SAS battle. I'm sure there are
many excellent programmers using SPSS in responsible ways. And in fact
seems like SAS is putting lots of effort into the click-and-point analysis
(I think folks said SAS LE also hides the program editor from you by
default). I've only been to a handful of SUGI's, but I can't remember one
opening session where someone said "well, let's open up some code in the
editor, hit submit, and..."
Kind Regards,
--Quentin
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