At 02:18 PM 10/23/2006, Moser, Gary wrote:

>I am very pleased with the subcommands 'apply template' and 'save >template' on the autorecode command. What if I want to create a >template that has numbers assigned to values in non-ordinal >arrangements?

After posting a failure on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:43:37 -0400, I looked again, and,

"By George, I think he's got it!" - Alan Jay Lerner

From the SPSS 14 Command Syntax Reference, article on AUTORECODE, p.166:

>APPLY TEMPLATE Subcommand >The APPLY TEMPLATE subcommand allows you to apply a previously saved >autorecode template. >.. Value mappings from the template are applied first. All remaining >values are recoded into values higher than the last value in the >template

'Remaining values'; i.e. values the source variable takes on, that are not in variable "Source_" in the template. AND, for this purpose, for string values to be the 'same', they must have the same length. (If this is documented, I haven't seen it.)

Below is a revised run; it's SPSS draft output, release 14. It AUTORECODEs an 8-character variable, generating a template; and creates a user template, in which variable "Source_" has length 8. Both those templates work properly when applied to the original variable. Neither of them give the desired results applied to a 12-character copy of the original variable; for both AUTORECODE regards the specifications from the template as not matching, and generates new recode specifications according to the rule quoted above.

* ............ AUTORECODE, create a template ...... . GET FILE=TestData. LIST. |-----------------------------|---------------------------| |Output Created |30-OCT-2006 18:10:39 | |-----------------------------|---------------------------| C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\My Documents\Temporary\SPSS \2006-10-23 Moser - Is it possible to create custom Template files DATA.SAV

CharVar

Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Eta Theta

Number of cases read: 7 Number of cases listed: 7

AUTORECODE CharVar /INTO NmbrAuto /SAVE TEMPLATE=AutoTmpl.

LIST. |-----------------------------|---------------------------| |Output Created |30-OCT-2006 18:10:39 | |-----------------------------|---------------------------| C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\My Documents\Temporary\SPSS \2006-10-23 Moser - Is it possible to create custom Template files DATA.SAV

CharVar NmbrAuto

Alpha 1 Beta 2 Gamma 6 Delta 3 Epsilon 4 Eta 5 Theta 7

Number of cases read: 7 Number of cases listed: 7

* ............ Load and list the template ...... . GET FILE=AutoTmpl. LIST. |-----------------------------|---------------------------| |Output Created |30-OCT-2006 18:10:39 | |-----------------------------|---------------------------| C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\My Documents\Temporary\SPSS \2006-10-23 Moser - Is it possible to create custom Template files GENERATED TEMPLATE.SAT

Source_ Target_

Alpha 1 Beta 2 Delta 3 Epsilon 4 Eta 5 Gamma 6 Theta 7

Number of cases read: 7 Number of cases listed: 7

* ............ Create a user's template ...... . NEW FILE. DATA LIST FREE / Source_ (A08) Target_ (F3). * The data line, below, omits 'Eta', code 106. . BEGIN DATA Alpha 101 Beta 102 Gamma 103 Delta 104 Epsilon 105 Theta 107 END DATA.

* ... Alpha 101 Beta 102 Gamma 103 Delta 104 * ... Epsilon 105 Eta 106 Theta 107.

* ............ List and save template ...... . * - 'Eta' is not included in values to be recoded . SORT CASES BY Source_. SAVE OUTFILE=UserTmpl. * ............ Load and list the template ...... . GET FILE=UserTmpl. LIST. |-----------------------------|---------------------------| |Output Created |30-OCT-2006 18:10:41 | |-----------------------------|---------------------------| C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\My Documents\Temporary\SPSS \2006-10-23 Moser - Is it possible to create custom Template files TEMPLATE CREATED BY USER.SAT

Source_ Target_

Alpha 101 Beta 102 Delta 104 Epsilon 105 Gamma 103 Theta 107

Number of cases read: 6 Number of cases listed: 6

* ............ Recode, with both templates, ...... . * 8-character and 12-character . * source variables. . GET FILE=TESTDATA.

STRING Char12 (A12). COMPUTE Char12 = Charvar.

AUTORECODE CharVar /INTO TgAuto /APPLY TEMPLATE=AutoTmpl.

AUTORECODE CharVar /INTO TgUser /APPLY TEMPLATE=UserTmpl.

AUTORECODE Char12 /INTO TgAuto12 /APPLY TEMPLATE=AutoTmpl.

AUTORECODE Char12 /INTO TgUser12 /APPLY TEMPLATE=UserTmpl.

FORMATS TgAuto TO TgUser12 (F4).

LIST. |-----------------------------|---------------------------| |Output Created |30-OCT-2006 18:10:41 | |-----------------------------|---------------------------| C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\My Documents\Temporary\SPSS \2006-10-23 Moser - Is it possible to create custom Template files DATA.SAV

CharVar Char12 TgAuto TgUser TgAuto12 TgUser12

Alpha Alpha 1 101 8 108 Beta Beta 2 102 9 109 Gamma Gamma 6 103 13 113 Delta Delta 3 104 10 110 Epsilon Epsilon 4 105 11 111 Eta Eta 5 108 12 112 Theta Theta 7 107 14 114

Number of cases read: 7 Number of cases listed: 7

DISPLAY DICTIONARY. |-----------------------------|---------------------------| |Output Created |30-OCT-2006 18:10:41 | |-----------------------------|---------------------------| C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\My Documents\Temporary\SPSS \2006-10-23 Moser - Is it possible to create custom Template files DATA.SAV

Variable Information |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| |Variable|Position|Label |Measurement|Column|Alignment|Print |Write | | | | |Level |Width | |Format|Format| |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| |CharVar |1 |<none>|Nominal |10 |Left |A8 |A8 | |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| |Char12 |2 |<none>|Nominal |14 |Left |A12 |A12 | |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| |TgAuto |3 |<none>|Nominal |8 |Right |F4 |F4 | |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| |TgUser |4 |<none>|Nominal |8 |Right |F4 |F4 | |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| |TgAuto12|5 |<none>|Nominal |10 |Right |F4 |F4 | |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| |TgUser12|6 |<none>|Nominal |10 |Right |F4 |F4 | |--------|--------|------|-----------|------|---------|------|------| Variables in the working file

Variable Values |--------|---|-------| |Value | |Label | |--------|---|-------| |TgAuto |1 |Alpha | | |2 |Beta | | |3 |Delta | | |4 |Epsilon| | |5 |Eta | | |6 |Gamma | | |7 |Theta | |--------|---|-------| |TgUser |101|Alpha | | |102|Beta | | |103|Gamma | | |104|Delta | | |105|Epsilon| | |107|Theta | | |108|Eta | |--------|---|-------| |TgAuto12|1 |Alpha | | |2 |Beta | | |3 |Delta | | |4 |Epsilon| | |5 |Eta | | |6 |Gamma | | |7 |Theta | | |---|-------| | |8 |Alpha | | |9 |Beta | | |10 |Delta | | |11 |Epsilon| | |12 |Eta | | |13 |Gamma | | |14 |Theta | |--------|---|-------| |TgUser12|101|Alpha | | |102|Beta | | |103|Gamma | | |104|Delta | | |105|Epsilon| | |107|Theta | | |---|-------| | |108|Alpha | | |109|Beta | | |110|Delta | | |111|Epsilon| | |112|Eta | | |113|Gamma | | |114|Theta | |--------|---|-------|