SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

The commands:
CASESTOVARS 183
SPLIT FILE BY insure.
CASESTOVARS
/ID=caseid
/INDEX=month.
create a new variable group for bps and a new group for bpd. The LIST output for the new
working file is as follows:
insure caseid bps.1 bps.2 bps.3 bpd.1 bpd.2 bpd.3
BCBS 1 160 . . 100 . .
BCBS 2 120 130 . 70 86 .
Prucare 1 160 200 180 94 105 105
Prucare 2 135 . . 90 . .
• The row groups in the original data are identified by insure and caseid.
• There are four row groups—one for each combination of the values in insure and caseid.
• The command creates four rows in the new data file, one for each row group.
• The candidate variables from the original file are bps and bpd. They vary within the row
group, so they will become variable groups in the new data file.
• The command creates two new variable groups—one for bps and one for bpd.
• Each variable group contains three new variables—one for each unique value of the index
variable month.
ID Subcommand
The ID subcommand specifies variables that identify the rows from the original data that
should be grouped together in the new data file.
• If the ID subcommand is omitted, only SPLIT FILE variables (if any) will be used to
group rows in the original data and to identify rows in the new data file.
• CASESTOVARS expects the data to be sorted by SPLIT FILE variables and then by ID
variables. If split file processing is in effect, the original data should be sorted on the
split variables in the order given on the SPLIT FILE command, and then on the ID
variables in the order in which they appear in the ID subcommand.
• A variable may appear on both the SPLIT FILE command and the ID subcommand.
• Variables listed on the SPLIT FILE command and on the ID subcommand are copied into
the new data file with their original values and dictionary information unless they are
dropped with the DROP subcommand.
• Variables listed on the ID subcommand may not appear on the FIXED or INDEX
subcommands.
• Rows in the original data for which any ID variable has the system-missing value or is
blank are not included in the new data file, and a warning message is displayed.
• ID variables are not candidates to become a variable group in the new data file.