SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

String Transformations
COMPUTE 253
String variables can be modified but cannot be created with COMPUTE. However, a new
string variable can be declared and assigned a width with the STRING command and then
assigned values by COMPUTE. The assignment expression can include string constants,
string variables, and any of the string functions. All other functions are available for numeric
transformations only.
Basic Specification
The basic specification is a target variable, an equals sign (required), and an assignment
expression.
Syntax Rules
• The target variable must be named first, and the equals sign is required. Only one target
variable is allowed per COMPUTE command.
• Numeric and string variables cannot be mixed in an expression. In addition, if the target
variable is numeric, the expression must yield a numeric value; if the target variable is a
string, the expression must yield a string value.
• Each function must specify at least one argument enclosed in parentheses. If a function has
two or more arguments, the arguments must be separated by commas. For a complete
discussion of the functions and their arguments, see “Transformation Expressions” on p. 37.
• You can use the TO keyword to refer to a set of variables where the argument is a list of
variables.
Numeric Variables
• Parentheses are used to indicate the order of execution and to set off the arguments to a
function.
• Numeric functions use simple or complex expressions as arguments. Expressions must be
enclosed in parentheses.
String Variables
• String values and constants must be enclosed in apostrophes or quotation marks.
• When strings of different lengths are compared using the ANY or RANGE functions, the
shorter string is right-padded with blanks so that its length equals that of the longer string.