Date:         Mon, 19 Jan 1998 14:18:26 -0600
Reply-To:     "Matheson, David" <davidm@SPSS.COM>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Matheson, David" <davidm@SPSS.COM>
Subject:      Re: BMDP -> SPSS
Comments: To: Melvin Klassen <KLASSEN@UVVM.UVIC.CA>

Just a couple of notes on Melvin Klassen's suggestions below.
 
1. GET BMDP was never utilized in SPSS for UNIX or Windows. (Christian
  didn't say which version of SPSS he planned to use). I'm fairly sure
  that GET BMDP is only available on the MVS and CMS versions of
  SPSS. SPSS 4.1 was the latest release for both of these platforms.
 
2. DBMS/COPY - probably your best choice here, if you have access to it.
  DBMS/COPY is written by Conceptual Software, but SPSS also sells it.
 
3. You can write to an ASCII file, but but the suggested WRITE OUTFILE
statement
is an SPSS command, for which the data would need to be in an SPSS
active data file.
To save the data to ASCII from BMDP, run BMDP 1D
with a /SAVE paragraph that includes a FORTRAN format statement, such as
 
/ SAVE   FILE = 'c:\data\gss.dat' .
              FORMAT = '(2A4,F5.2,3X,2F4.1)' .
 
This example would save 4-char stringd in cols 1-4 and 5-8, followed by
a 5-char numeric with
 2 decimal places in cols. 9-13, 3 blank spaces in col. 14-16, and two
4-character numerics
  each with 1 decimal place, in cols. 17-20 and 21-24. The order in
which variables are
written would be dictated by their order in the BMDP active data file.
Check Vol 1 of the BMDP manual for detailed rules of the /SAVE
paragraph.
You could also use the Data Manager procedure in BMDP to write the
ASCII file, using fairly similar commands.
 
4. An alternative file transfer program would be Diamond 1.1 for
Windows, which will
read a BMDP Port file and save an SPSS portable or windows system file.
Diamond is also available from SPSS.
 
David Matheson
SPSS Technical Support
 
>----------
>From:  Melvin Klassen[SMTP:KLASSEN@UVVM.UVIC.CA]
>Sent:  Friday, January 16, 1998 11:10 AM
>To:    SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
>Subject:       Re: BMDP -> SPSS
>
>Christian Berger <berger@PSYCHOLOGIE.WISO.TU-MUENCHEN.DE> writes:
>>
>>Does anybody have an idea how to tarnsform BMDP/Unix datafiles in a SPSS
>>compatible form?
>
>(1) Your version of SPSS may support 'GET BMDP=handle'.
>    Some versions do.
>(2) The commercial software 'DBMS/COPY' can convert "system-files"
>    from BMDP-format to SPSS-format.
>(3) You can use 'WRITE OUTFILE=handle / VAR001 to VARnnn'
>    to write an ASCII data file,
>    and then use 'DATA LIST' in SPSS to read this "raw" data.
>