Hi

Try this:

COMPUTE quarters=(XDATE.YEAR(received) - 2002)*4 + XDATE.QUARTER(received).

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 Paul Dickson Sent: July 6, 2004 6:57 PM To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: date coding syntax (self-updating)

Hi servers,

I am importing dates from excel that need to be coded into 4 lots of 3-monthly quarters. The periods are Jan1 to 31 March etc for four periods each year. The data is ongoing and needs to be updated on a regular basis. I have set up recoding that looks like the following but as soon an new dates come in, the recoding syntax needs to be re-adjusted because the most recent data from a new period are getting coded into the previous dates.

COMPUTE quarters=CTIME.DAYS(DATE.DMY(30,6,2004) - received)/365.25. IF (quarters >=2.2587268993 & quarters <= 2.5 ) newquare = 1. IF (quarters >= 2.0068446269 & quarters <= 2.2587) newquare = 2. IF (quarters >=1.749 & quarters <= 2.00) newquare = 3. IF (quarters >=1.497604 & quarters <= 1.746749) newquare = 4. IF (quarters >=1.2511978096 & quarters <=1.4976039) newquare = 5. IF (quarters >= 1.0020 & quarters <= 1.248460) newquare = 6. IF (quarters >=.750 & quarters <= .999316) newquare = 7. IF (quarters >= .49828 & quarters <= .747434) newquare = 8. IF (quarters >= .0 & quarters <= .492814) newquare = 9. execute. VARIABLE LABELS newquare 'new quarters'. value labels newquare 1 'Jan-March(2002)' 2 'Apr-Jun(2002)' 3 'Jul-Sep(2002)' 4 'Oct-Dec(2002)' 5 'Jan-March(2003)' 6 'Apr-Jun(2003)' 7 'Jul-Sep(2003)' 8 'Oct-Dec2003' 9 'Jan-Mar(2004)'. execute.

Since the data is ongoingly coming in, any advice on how to develop syntax that will contine to update irrespective of the year would be much appreciated.

Regards Paul