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Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:15:59 -0500
Reply-To: "Oliver, Richard" <roliver@SPSS.COM>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: "Oliver, Richard" <roliver@SPSS.COM>
Subject: Re: SV: For those in need of running SAS using an SPSS file
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The SPSS facility for writing SAS-format data files includes the ability to write value labels to a SAS formats file. This has been true for quite a few years (it's not new in SPSS 14).
-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Staffan Lindberg
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 12:44 PM
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: SV: For those in need of running SAS using an SPSS file
Hi!
Being in a somewhat similar situation (although a SPSS user) I often find myself having to convert SPSS-files to SAS datasets for SAS-people. The easiest solution (at least for me) is to use a conversion program. I use DBMSCOPY but there are others (StatTransfer among others). With DMBSCOPY I can even convert SPSS Value Labels to SAS Formats. This is accomplished by DMBSCOPY generating a SAS program that you can run in SAS thus getting the Formats.
An even faster way is to to use the ability of SPSS 14 (and perhaps earlier) to write SAS files in different formats (although I don't know if the Value labels are converted).
best
Staffan Lindberg
National Institute of Public Health
Sweden
-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] För Joseph Teitelman temp2
Skickat: den 14 juli 2006 18:19
Till: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Ämne: For those in need of running SAS using an SPSS file
For the past 2 months, I've been forced to learn how to use SPSS, since my employer uses SPSS solely.
For those interested in analyzing data in SAS created as an SPSS *.sav file, the following steps are required.
Note that I discovered this information from the very popular "Little SAS Book."
1) first save your spss file as a portable file * it has the extension por.
2) use the following SAS syntax:
a) LIBNAME myspss SPSS 'c:\Myspsslib\spss.por';
b) to use the print procedure in SAS type
PROC PRINT DATA = myspss._FIRST_;
c) to list the contents of the spss file (the variables and their attributes
type: PROC CONTENTS DATA = myspss._FIRST_;
d) to convert the spss portable file to a SAS data set, type the following:
DATA 'c:\MySASlib\spsspor';
SET myspss._FIRST_;
e) the output will contain a list of observations/ records grouped by each variable in the data set.
The next procedure * Proc contents will produce the variable #, the variable name, the type of variable (num or char, e.g.), Length of each variable, position of each variable, format of each variable. and label for each variable.
Obviously, the information I provided is not intended for those who prefer to use SPSS rather than SAS. It's for those like me, who were forced to learn SPSS for some reason, such as a job, but would like to analyze the data using SAS.
I hope this proves helpful for those of you in the same shoes as myself.
I am not advocating the use of SAS over SPSS; rather I am merely showing that for those who prefer SAS over SPSS, it's easy to read an SPSS file using SAS, after saving the SPSS file as a portable document.
