Date:         Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:34:27 -0400
Reply-To:     Gene Maguin <emaguin@buffalo.edu>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Gene Maguin <emaguin@buffalo.edu>
Subject:      Re: changing width of strings
In-Reply-To:  <DEA31AC47C59C54184482558EB185D1809E65427@CTSPITDCEMMVX15.cihs.ad.gov.on.ca>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Patricia, look at the Alter type command. Extremely useful. Gene Maguin

  _____

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Cleland, Patricia (EDU)
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 9:25 AM
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: changing width of strings



I'm trying to merge the results of two versions of a questionnaire but I'm
having problems with some of the open-ended questions.  For example, in one
of the versions, the format of a variable is A22 and in the other version
it's A36.  I assume that if I change the format in the first version to A36,
the merge should work.  I can certainly go in and do that by hand, but
that's labour intensive, error prone, doesn't leave an audit trail and
requires stopping in the middle of a run.



When I had a similar problem with a variable that should have been numeric
in both versions but came through as a string in one version, I used the
COMPUTE NewVar=numeric(OldVar, F6) command.



Is there something similar that I can use for strings?



TIA

Pat


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