Date:         Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:19:34 -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: Label to 22-digit id
Comments: To: Andi <schiggy1978@YAHOO.DE>
In-Reply-To:  <200806140710.m5E7A0Ci023512@mailgw.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 03:09 AM 6/14/2008, Andi wrote:

>I thought that I would have a simple problem but I could not solve it.
>I have a 22-digits ID like "1010010070001500012312" and would like
>to give a label to this ID like ("Andi").
>
>var lab
>/id
>1010010070001500012312 "Andi".
>
>However, when I try to do this then SPSS somehow cuts the ID at a
>position and  enters 0 after that. The results is as follows.
>
>freq id.
>1010010070001500000000 Andi

You're running into the limits of SPSS numbers(*): Integers longer
than 15 digits may be truncated, and those longer than 16 digits
always will be.

You can make your ID a string of length 22. In SPSS 16, but not
earlier, you can assign value labels to a 22-character string (or to
any string longer than 8 characters).
.........................
(*) If you're interested:

SPSS, and most current applications, represent numbers in the 64-bit
floating-point format defined by IEEE standard 754. Most modern
computers have hardware to do arithmetic with IEEE 754 numbers, so
calculations are fast and easy to program.

Precision is 53 bits, which is very close to 16 decimal digits. All
integers from 0 through 9,007,199,254,740,992 (i.e., all through 15
digits, and most through 16 digits) can be represented, as can
numbers as between about 10**-308 and 10**308.

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