Date:         Thu, 14 May 2009 16:49:31 +0200
Reply-To:     Marta García-Granero <mgarciagranero@gmail.com>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Marta García-Granero <mgarciagranero@gmail.com>
Subject:      Re: empty variable
In-Reply-To:  <29384.81436.qm@web46005.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Gyorgy Bea wrote:
> Is there any possibility to check wether a variable is empty through
> all cases? I want to detect those variables, that are totally empty,
> have no cases.
>

What do you plan to do later with those  variables? If you just want to
know if there are empty variables, use a simple procedure like
DESCRIPTIVES. The empty variables will have N=0. If you want to locate
them to get rid of them, then you will need something more complex, like
a macro.

Locating them is easy:

TEMPORARY.
SET TVars Names.
DESCRIPTIVES
  VARIABLES=ALL
  /STATISTICS=MIN MAX
  /SORT=NAME.

You will get a list of every variable in your dataset, sorted by name,
with their valid N. This is a good starting point for a macro that uses
OMS to capture the list, select those variables with n=0 and then drop
them from the dataset. Ask the list for help if you want to go that way
and don't know how.

HTH,
Marta García-Granero

--
For miscellaneous SPSS related statistical stuff, visit:
http://gjyp.nl/marta/

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