changing variable type deletes whole variable

[dr soumalya ray]

hi,

in PSPP changing the variable type from, say numeric to string or vice-versa, will delete the whole variable.

steps:

1. launch psppire
2. create 2 variables- var1 and var2
3. change variable type of var2 to "string"
4. enter some data under var1 and var2 (say, 1,2,3,4,5 etc)
5. now, again go to the variable view
6. change the variable type from "numeric" to "string" for var1
7. go to the data view
8. all entry under var1 is deleted
9. for var2, variable type could be changed from "string" to "numeric" and it will result in the same thing- loss of all data under var2.
10. the output in the terminal - "(psppire:28002): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: Trying to remove a child that doesn't believe we're it's parent."
    

i am presently using PSPP 0.7.10 in ubuntu 12.04; but this was probably present in earlier versions also.

in SPSS 20, changing the variable type does not result into data loss.

is this a known issue in PSPP? how to stop it from happening?

regards,

 

Dr Soumalya Ray <address@hidden>
MBBS,MD(PGT-C.Medicine),Ex-HP(Medicine)