Re: dataset experiments

[Frans Houweling]

Glad to hear you do - now I know what Watson feels like :-)
Keep it up!
frans

On 02/22/2016 05:14 PM, Ben Pfaff wrote:

Thanks!  I think I understand now.

On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 11:33 PM, <address@hidden> wrote:

DATASET NAME file1.
GET 'aggr7.sav'.
DATASET DISPLAY.

Dataset Display


Datasets
 | ------------ |
 | (unnamed)(a) |
 | ------------ |
a Active dataset




----- Messaggio originale -----
Da: "Ben Pfaff" <address@hidden>
A: "Frans Houweling" <address@hidden>
Cc: address@hidden
Inviato: Lunedì, 22 febbraio 2016 2:05:34
Oggetto: Re: dataset experiments

On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 10:47:16PM +0100, Frans Houweling wrote:
> >Experiment #1 ------------- Start up SPSS. Then, before you define any
> >variables or open any data files, Run a DATASET NAME command, like this:
> >DATASET NAME myfile. Does SPSS accept this or give an error and, if it
> >gives an error, what is it?
> SPSS 14 accepts this and displays "Untitled1 [myfile]" in the data editor.

OK, I did not expect that.  I had the impression that a dataset had to
have some content before it really existed and could be named.

> >Experiment #2 ------------- Start up SPSS. Then, before you do anything
> >else, run a syntax file like this:
> >GET 'file1.sav'.
> >DATASET NAME file1.
> >DATASET DISPLAY.
> >GET 'file2.sav'.
> >DATASET DISPLAY.
>
> GET 'aggr7.sav'.
> DATASET NAME file1.
> DATASET display.
>
> Dataset Display
>
> Datasets
>  | -------- |
>  | file1(a) |
>  | -------- |
> a Active dataset
>
> GET 'aggr8.sav'.
> DATASET DISPLAY.
>
> Dataset Display
>
> Datasets
>  | ------------ |
>  | file1        |
>  | ------------ |
>  | (unnamed)(a) |
>  | ------------ |
> a Active dataset

OK, experiment #2 indicates that doing a GET creates a new unnamed
dataset, instead of replacing the current dataset.  The documentation
sort of implies that, but it is not very clear.



How about experiment #3, then, to clarify what happens to an empty
dataset when GET executes, like this:

Experiment #3
-------------

Start up SPSS. Then, before you do anything else, run a syntax file like
this:

DATASET NAME file1.
GET 'file1.sav'.
DATASET DISPLAY.


Thanks again!