SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

1704 Appendix C
Figure C.1 File RECTANG.DAT
1988 CHICAGO JONES 900
1988 CHICAGO GREGORY 400
1988 BATON ROUGE RODRIGUEZ 300
1988 BATON ROUGE SMITH 333
1988 BATON ROUGE GRAU 100
Since the sales data are rectangular, you can use the DATA LIST command to define these
data:
DATA LIST FILE=’RECTANG.DAT’
/ YEAR 1-4
REGION 6-16(A)
SALESPER 18-26(A)
SALES 29-31.
• DATA LIST defines the variable YEAR in columns 1 through 4 and string variable
REGION in columns 6 through 16 in file RECTANG.DAT. The program also reads
variables SALESPER and SALES on each record.
• The LIST output in Figure C.2 shows the contents of each variable.
Figure C.2 LIST output for RECTANG.DAT
YEAR REGION SALESPER SALES
1988 CHICAGO JONES 900
1988 CHICAGO GREGORY 400
1988 BATON ROUGE RODRIGUEZ 300
1988 BATON ROUGE SMITH 333
1988 BATON ROUGE GRAU 100
Nested Files
In a nested file, information on some records applies to several cases. The 1988 sales
data are arranged in nested format in Figure C.3. The data contain three kinds of records.
A code in the first column indicates whether a record is a year (Y), region (R), or person
record (P).