User manual SPSS TABLES 11.5

[. . . ] SPSS Tables 11. 5 TM For more information about SPSS® software products, please visit our Web site at http://www. spss. com, or contact: SPSS Inc. 233 South Wacker Drive, 11th Floor Chicago, IL 60606-6412 Tel: (312) 651-3000 Fax: (312) 651-3668 SPSS is a registered trademark and the other product names are the trademarks of SPSS Inc. No material describing such software may be produced or distributed without the written permission of the owners of the trademark and license rights in the software and the copyrights in the published materials. The SOFTWARE and documentation are provided with RESTRICTED RIGHTS. [. . . ] All examples provided here display variable labels in dialog boxes, sorted in alphabetical order. Variable list display properties are set on the General tab in the Options dialog box (Edit menu, Options). 131 132 Chapter 8 Stacked Scale Variables You can summarize multiple scale variables in the same table by stacking them in the table. From the menus, choose: Analyze Tables Custom Tables. . . In the table builder, click Age of respondent in the variable list, Ctrl-click Highest year of school completed, and Ctrl-click Hours per day watching TV to select all three variables. Drag and drop the three selected variables to the Rows area of the canvas pane. Figure 8-1 Stacked scale variables in table builder 133 Summarizing Scale Variables The three variables are stacked in the row dimension. Since all three variables are scale variables, no categories are displayed, and the default summary statistic is the mean. Click OK to create the table. Figure 8-2 Table of mean values of stacked scale variables Multiple Summary Statistics By default, the mean is displayed for scale variables; however, you can choose other summary statistics for scale variables, and you can display more than one summary statistic. Open the table builder (Analyze menu, Tables, Custom Tables). Right-click any one of the three scale variables in the table preview on the canvas pane and select Summary Statistics from the pop-up context menu. In the Summary Statistics dialog box, select Median in the Statistics list and click the arrow to add it to the Display list. (You can use the arrow to move selected statistics from the Statistics list to the Display list, or you can drag and drop selected statistics from the Statistics list into the Display list. ) Click the Format cell for the median in the Display list and select nnnn from the drop- down list of formats. In the Decimals cell, type 1. Make the same changes for the mean in the Display list. 134 Chapter 8 Figure 8-3 Mean and median selected in Summary Statistics dialog box Click Apply to All to apply these changes to all three scale variables. Click OK in the table builder to create the table. Figure 8-4 Mean and median displayed in table of stacked scale variables Count, Valid N, and Missing Values It is often useful to display the number of cases used to compute summary statistics, such as the mean, and you might assume (not unreasonably) that the summary statistic Count would provide that information. However, this will not give you an accurate case base if there are any missing values. To obtain an accurate case base, use Valid N. Open the table builder (Analyze menu, Tables, Custom Tables). Right-click any one of the three scale variables in the table preview on the canvas pane and select Summary Statistics from the pop-up context menu. In the Summary Statistics dialog box, select Count in the Statistics list and click the arrow to add it to the Display list. 135 Summarizing Scale Variables Then select Valid N in the Statistics list and click the arrow to add it to the Display list. Click Apply to All to apply these changes to all three scale variables. Click OK in the table builder to create the table. Figure 8-5 Count versus Valid N For all three variable, Count is the same: 2, 832. Not coincidentally, this is the total number of cases in the data file. Since the scale variables aren't nested within any categorical variables, Count simply represents the total number of cases in the data file. Valid N, on the other hand, is different for each variable and differs quite a lot from Count for Hours per day watching TV. This is because there is a large number of missing values for this variable--that is, cases with no value recorded for this variable or values defined as representing missing data (such as a code of 99 to represent "not applicable" for pregnancy in males). Open the table builder (Analyze menu, Tables, Custom Tables). Right-click any one of the three scale variables in the table preview on the canvas pane and select Summary Statistics from the pop-up context menu. In the Summary Statistics dialog box, select Valid N in the Display list and click the arrow key to move it back to the Statistics list, removing it from the Display list. Select Count in the Display list and click the arrow key to move it back to the Statistics list, removing it from the Display list. Select Missing in the Statistics list and click the arrow key to add it to the Display list. [. . . ] The original syntax file is not altered. n Convert only TABLES commands in the syntax file. Other commands in the file are not altered. n Retain the original TABLES syntax in commented form. n Identify the beginning and end of each conversion block with comments. n Identify TABLES syntax commands that could not be converted. [. . . ]