Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 15:32:08 -0400
Reply-To: Richard Ristow <wrristow@mindspring.com>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Richard Ristow <wrristow@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: How to convert SAS codes to SPSS codes
In-Reply-To: <85AB8EFB85FB7445A4C911EFE56D8BFB19F604@BLRMAIL.symphonysv. com>
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At 09:39 AM 9/1/2005, Shakti Sankhla wrote:
>I have some SAS codes which I need to convert to SPSS. Are there any
>tools that could do some conversion to help conversion?
I'm afraid there aren't, and aren't likely to be. The two are
complicated languages, and don't have completely equivalent semantics.
However,
>If I have to manually convert, are there any process map to guide?
Not really, but there are two main pieces:
A. Data manipulation: SAS DATA steps and PROC SQL, SPSS transformation
programs and INPUT PROGRAMs.
Here, MOST of what can be done in one, can be done in the other.
Converting from SAS, you'll hit some specific points where SPSS is
weaker, or handles things very differently from how SAS does. As
examples, by no means exhaustive,
. Of course, user-defined formats in SAS become, generally, VALUE
LABELS in SPSS
. Certain uses of user-defined formats, for example displaying a range
of values with the same rendition, require RECODE or similar tools in
SPSS
. SAS can have arrays whose members are not contiguous, and arrays with
more than one dimension. Neither will translate directly to SPSS.
. Some uses of PROC SQL, including many-to-many matches, are very
difficult to emulate in SPSS.
B. Statistical and reporting code: PROC steps in SAS, procedure
statements in SPSS.
Here, there's nothing possible but studying what you're doing in SAS
and seeing how to get the same effects in SPSS. At the high end of
sophistication, I think that SAS can do analyses that are awkward or
impossible in SPSS; at the least, require add-on modules.
..............
This is very incomplete, but I hope it can start to guide your
thinking. Post again, with specifics of the SAS code you want to
convert.
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