SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

VARSTOCASES
VARSTOCASES
/MAKE new variable ["label"] [FROM] varlist [/MAKE ...]
[/INDEX = {new variable ["label"] }]
{new variable ["label"] (make variable name) }
{new variable ["label"] (n) new variable ["label"](n) ...}
[/ID = new variable ["label"]]
[/NULL = {DROP**}]
{KEEP }
[/COUNT=new variable ["label"]]
[/KEEP={ALL** }] [/DROP=varlist]
{varlist}
**Default if the subcommand is omitted.
Example
VARSTOCASES /MAKE newvar FROM var1 TO var4.
Overview
Options
A variable contains information that you want to analyze, such as a measurement or a test
score. A case is an observation, such as an individual or an institution. In a simple data
structure, each variable is a single column in your data. So if you are measuring test scores,
for example, all test score values would appear in only one column. In a simple data structure,
each case is a single row in your data. So if you were measuring scores for all students
in a class, there would be a row for each student.
VARSTOCASES restructures complex data structures (in which information about a
variable is stored in more than one column) into a data file in which those measurements
are organized into separate rows of a single column. It replaces the working data file.
You can use VARSTOCASES to restructure data files in which repeated measurements of
a single case were recorded in one row into a new data file in which each measurement for
a case appears in a new row.
Creating new variables. You can create an identification variable that identifies the row in
the original data file that was used to create a group of new rows, a count variable that
contains the number of new rows generated by a row in the original data, and one or more
index variables that identify the original variable from which the new row was created.
Variable Selection. You can use the DROP and KEEP subcommands to specify which
variables from the original data file are included in the new data file.
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