SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

Variables 35
is read as two separate values (Ed and Mr.). To include blanks and/or commas in a string
value, enclose the value in apostrophes or quotation marks. For example, the following
command file will generate a list of values as shown in Figure 13:
DATA LIST FREE /ALPHAVAR (A10).
BEGIN DATA
Mr. Ed
Ed,Mr.
’Mr. Ed’
’Ed, Mr.’
END DATA.
LIST.
Figure 13 Blanks and commas in freefield string input
ALPHAVAR
Mr.
Ed
Ed
Mr.
Mr. Ed
Ed, Mr.
AHEXw (Hexadecimal Characters)
The AHEX format is used to read the hexadecimal representation of standard characters. Each
set of two hexadecimal characters represents one standard character. For codes used on
different operating systems, see Appendix B.
• The w specification refers to columns of the hexadecimal representation and must be an
even number. Leading, trailing, and embedded blanks are not allowed, and only valid
hexadecimal characters can be used in input values.
• For some operating systems (for example, IBM CMS), letters in hexadecimal values must
be upper case.
• The default output format for variables read with the AHEX input format is the A format.
The default width is half the specified input width. For example, an input format of
AHEX14 generates an output format of A7.
• Used as an output format, the AHEX format displays the printable characters in the
hexadecimal characters specific to your system. The following commands run on a UNIX
system (where A=41 (decimal 65), a=61 (decimal 97), and so on) produce the output
shown in Figure 14:
DATA LIST FIXED
/A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z 1-26 (A).
FORMATS ALL (AHEX2).
BEGIN DATA
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
END DATA.
LIST.