Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:17:41 -0700
Reply-To: Justin Carroll <jrc.csus@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Justin Carroll <jrc.csus@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: How to create notes on SPSS?
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTilvMRCFCxHMACO-_nqOQd6m_IUv47i-GXCXEz9e@mail.gmail.com>
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Ben,
A quick review of the SPSS/PASW syntax guide provided some pretty useful
information (I have never used this command before, but I will be in the
future - thanks for pointing it out!).
I tested the following:
-------
ADD DOCUMENT "I am testing this out.".
ADD DOCUMENT "This would be trial test #2".
DOCUMENT "Trial test#3".
DISPLAY DOCUMENT.
-------
The first two commands "add" a new comment to the data file (you can achieve
the same effect by going to: Utilities -> Data File Comments... please note
I am using v17 am not sure how/when it was implemented in older versions of
SPSS).
The third line, "DOCUMENT" apparently does the same thing, however I did
notice that the SPSS-Syntax guide recommends that you use the former (i.e.
"ADD DOCUMENT"); not sure why, maybe one of the other listers can answer
that. I do notice that "DOCUMENT" does not require the use of quotes around
the string, whereas if you use 'ADD DOCUMENT' you have to encapsulate your
document note with quotes. E.g. (sample syntax)
-------
ADD DOCUMENT "See the quotes to either side of this note? Without them, SPSS
would return an error".
DOCUMENT Notice now that I do not have quotes - this may be difficult to
manage in the midst of other syntax.
DISPLAY DOCUMENT.
-------
The last command I pasted, in both examples ("DISPLAY DOCUMENT") pastes the
comments into the output window in sequential order as entered into the data
file. I would recommend that you not put "ADD DOCUMENT" into your syntax
for future use as it appears once the document notes are appended to the
data file it stays native to the data file itself - if you rerun the
script/syntax that contains the 'document notes' it will re-add a new set of
document notes to the old set (thus you will have redundant notes); try
rerunning the sample scripts above and see how it continues to add the same
notes repetitively.
Hope I made sense and that this was helpful.
J. R. Carroll
Grad. Student in Pre-Doc Psychology at CSUS
Research Assistant for Just About Everyone.
Email: jrc.csus@gmail.com -or- jrcarroll@jrcresearch.net
Phone: (916) 628-4204
On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Ben Lintschinger <
ben.lintschinger@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I was wondering how to add easily accessible notes onto my datasets so that
> I can remember what I did with them (Aside from having a syntax specific to
> each dataset). I read that the DOCUMENT command is involved with this, but
> I'm not sure exactly how this works, nor how to look up the notes once I
> input them. Any advice?
>
> Ben
>
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