SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

VARIABLES Subcommand
PARTIAL CORR 1193
VARIABLES requires a correlation list of one or more pairs of variables for which partial
correlations are desired and a control list of one or more variables that will be used as
controls for the variables in the correlation list, followed by optional order values in
parentheses.
• The correlation list specifies pairs of variables to be correlated while controlling for the
variables in the control list.
• To request a square or lower-triangular matrix, do not use keyword WITH in the correlation
list. This obtains the partial correlation of every variable with every other variable in
the list.
• To request a rectangular matrix, specify a list of correlation variables followed by
keyword WITH and a second list of variables. This obtains the partial correlation of
specific variable pairs. The first variable list defines the rows of the matrix and the second
list defines the columns.
• The control list is specified after keyword BY.
• The correlation between a pair of variables is referred to as a zero-order correlation.
Controlling for one variable produces a first-order partial correlation, controlling for two
variables produces a second-order partial, and so on.
• You can specify order values in parentheses following the control list to indicate the exact
partials to be computed. These values also determine the partial correlation matrix or
matrices to be printed. Up to five order values can be specified. Separate each value with
at least one space or comma. The default order value is the number of control variables.
• One partial is produced for every unique combination of control variables for each order
value.
• To specify multiple analyses, use multiple VARIABLES subcommands or a slash to separate
each set of specifications on one VARIABLES subcommand. PARTIAL CORR computes
the zero-order correlation matrix for each analysis list separately.
Example
PARTIAL CORR RENT FOOD PUBTRANS WITH TEACHER MANAGER BY NETSALRY(1).
• PARTIAL CORR produces a rectangular matrix. Variables RENT, FOOD, and PUBTRANS
form the matrix rows, and variables TEACHER and MANAGER form the columns.
• Keyword VARIABLES is omitted. This is allowed because the variable list is the first specification
on PARTIAL CORR.
Example
PARTIAL CORR RENT WITH TEACHER BY NETSALRY, NETPRICE (1).
PARTIAL CORR RENT WITH TEACHER BY NETSALRY, NETPRICE (2).
PARTIAL CORR RENT WITH TEACHER BY NETSALRY, NETPRICE (1,2).
PARTIAL CORR RENT FOOD PUBTRANS BY NETSALRY NETPURSE NETPRICE
(1,3).
• The first PARTIAL CORR produces two first-order partials: RENT with TEACHER controlling
for NETSALRY, and RENT with TEACHER controlling for NETPRICE.