Hello!
I’m trying to construct a Syntax to generate a Syntax in SPSS, but I’m having some issues…
I have an excel file with metadata and I would like to use it in order to make a syntax to extract information from it (like this, if I have a huge database, I just need to keep the excel updated – add/delete variables, etc. - and then run a syntax to
extract the needed information for a new syntax).
I also noticed the produced syntax has always around 15Mb, which is a lot (applied to more than 500 lines)!
I don’t use Python due to run syntax in different computers and/or configurations.
Any ideas? Can anyone please help me?
Thank you in advance.

Example:
(test.xlsx – sheet 1)
Var Code Label List Var_label (concatenate Var+Label)
V1 3 Sex 1 V1 “Sex”
V2 1 Work 2 V2 “Work”
V3 3 Country 3 V3 “Country”
V4 1 Married 2 V4 “Married”
V5 1 Kids 2 V5 “Kids”
V6 2 Satisf1 4 V6 “Satisf1”
V7 2 Satisf2 4 V7 “Satisf2”

(information from other file)
List = 1
1 “Male”
2 “Female”
List = 2
1 “Yes”
2 “No”
List = 3
1 “Europe”
2 “America”
3 “Asia”
4 “Africa”
5 “Oceania”
List = 4
1 “Very unsatisfied”
10 “Very satisfied”

I want to make a Syntax that generates a new syntax to apply “VARIABLE LABELS” and “VALUE LABELS”. So, I thought about something like this:
GET DATA
/TYPE=XLSX
/FILE="test.xlsx"
/SHEET=name 'sheet 1'
/CELLRANGE=FULL
/READNAMES=ON
/DATATYPEMIN PERCENTAGE=95.0.
EXECUTE.

STRING vlb (A15) labels (A150) value (A12) lab (A1500) point (A2) separate (A50) space (A2) list1 (A100) list2 (A100).

SELECT IF (Code=1).
COMPUTE vlb = "VARIABLE LABELS".
COMPUTE labels = CONCAT (RTRIM(Var_label)," ").
COMPUTE point = ".".
COMPUTE value = "VALUE LABELS".
COMPUTE lab = CONCAT (RTRIM(Var)," ").
COMPUTE list1 = '1 " Yes "'.
COMPUTE list2 = '2 "No".'.
COMPUTE space = " ".
COMPUTE separate="************************************************.".

WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" / vlb.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /labels.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /point.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /value.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /lab.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /list1.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /list2.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /space.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /separate.
WRITE OUTFILE = "list_01.sps" /space.

If there is only one variable with same list (ex: V1), it works ok. However, if there is more than one variable having the same list, it reproduces the codes as much times as number of variables (Ex: V2, V4 and V5).

What I have (Ex: V2, V4 and V5), after running code above:

VARIABLE LABELS
V2 "Work"
.
VALUE LABELS
V2
1 " Yes "
2 " No "
************************************************.
VARIABLE LABELS
V4 "Married"
.
VALUE LABELS
V4
1 " Yes "
2 " No "
************************************************.
VARIABLE LABELS
V5 "Kids"
.
VALUE LABELS
V5
1 " Yes "
2 " No "
************************************************.


What I would like to have:

VARIABLE LABELS
V2 "Work"
V4 "Married"
V5 "Kids"
.
VALUE LABELS
V2 V4 V5
1 " Yes "
2 " No "

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On Tue, 11 May 2021 03:49:46 -0700 (PDT), parausar nabox <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello!
I’m trying to construct a Syntax to generate a Syntax in SPSS, but I’m having some issues…
I have an excel file with metadata and I would like to use it in order to make a syntax to extract information from it (like this, if I have a huge database, I just need to keep the excel updated – add/delete variables, etc. - and then run a syntax to

extract the needed information for a new syntax).

To random readers: This question was posted at the same
time on the SPSS List and it was discussed there.

--
Rich Ulrich

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