Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:24:22 -0600
Reply-To: "Norton, John" <jnorton@spss.com>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: "Norton, John" <jnorton@spss.com>
Subject: Re: data backup??
In-Reply-To: <000e01c85a0f$0e8ed4b0$6500a8c0@virginia.edu>
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Hi Adam,
You should still be able to retrieve the commands from the journal file. Even if you use a command and interactively edit it by changing the variables and re-run it, the new command just executed should still be recorded in the journal file.
Also, if you are continuously running the same commands but manually editing the variables (or other options), I would encourage you to consider automating the processes by using SPSS macros and/or Python. This will allow you to place tokens where the variables or other settings are in the commands, and then feed values to the tokens (variable names, for example) and thereby tremendously decrease the amount of time currently being spent manually editing the variable names.
Good luck,
John Norton
SPSS Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Maltese [mailto:avm9t@a.mail.virginia.edu]
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 2:17 PM
To: Norton, John
Subject: RE: data backup??
Thanks John. Unfortunately, I've been running everything from syntax anyway,
so I have a complete record of the operations......however, because I'm
creating summary variables and cutting and pasting, that won't work for me.
Cheers,
Adam
-----Original Message-----
From: Norton, John [mailto:jnorton@spss.com]
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 3:14 PM
To: avm9t@cms.mail.virginia.edu
Subject: RE: data backup??
Hi Adam,
There's no back up, per se. But SPSS does by default save the commands from
your sessions. So, for example, if you executed a frequency distribution
from the menus, SPSS saves the frequency command with all your settings to
the SPSS Journal file.
This file is called "spss.jnl" is usually saved to the Temp directory off
the C drive. You can determine where the journal file is saved by looking
under Edit > Options from within SPSS.
As this file is essentially a record of your work, written in SPSS commands,
you can recreate your work by locating the time stamp in the journal file
from when you started your work. Then, simply copy and paste the commands
to a syntax window and run them interactively. I've found that it's best to
run the commands in blocks, and not all at once, so that you can more
effectively retrace your steps.
I hope this helps.
John Norton
SPSS Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Adam Maltese
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 1:58 PM
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: data backup??
Good afternoon! I just was finishing up work on cleaning up a data set of
college transcript records. For some unknown reason, SPSS started telling me
that I couldn't save or made any more edits to the copy I was working on. I
tried a Save As, and that didn't work either. At this point I've lost the
last 4 days of (very tedious) work. Does anyone know if SPSS saves temporary
or backup files in some hidden location that I might be able to "restore"
to?
Thanks for any help.
Cheers,
Adam
****************************************************************
Adam V. Maltese, PhD Candidate in Science Education
Curry School of Education
University of Virginia
405 Emmet St. South
P.O. Box 400273
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Ph: (434) 924-4732
Fax: (434) 924-0747
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