SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

Example
* Keyword !CHAREND.
DEFINE macname (!POSITIONAL !CHAREND (’/’))
frequencies variables = !1.
!ENDDEFINE.
DEFINE—!ENDDEFINE 449
macname A B C D / E F.
• Although E and F are not part of the positional argument and are not used in the macro
expansion, the program still reads them as text and interprets them in relation to where the
macro definition ends. In this example, macro definition ends after the expanded variable
list (D). E and F are names of variables. Thus, E and F are added to the variable list and
FREQUENCIES is executed with six variables: A, B, C, D, E, and F.
Example
* Keyword !ENCLOSE.
DEFINE macname (!POSITIONAL !ENCLOSE(’(’,’)’))
frequencies variables = !1
/statistics = default skewness.
!ENDDEFINE.
macname (A B C) D E.
• When the macro is called, the three tokens enclosed in parentheses, A, B, and C, are
assigned to the positional argument !1 in the macro body.
• After macro expansion is complete, the program reads the remaining characters on the
macro call as text. In this instance, the macro definition ends with keyword SKEWNESS
on the STATISTICS subcommand. Adding variable names to the STATISTICS subcommand
is not valid syntax. The program generates a warning message but is still able to execute
the frequencies command. Frequency tables and the specified statistics are generated for
the variables A, B, and C.
Example
* Keyword !CMDEND’.
DEFINE macname (!POSITIONAL !TOKENS(2)
/!POSITIONAL !CMDEND)
frequencies variables = !1.
correlations variables= !2.
!ENDDEFINE.
macname A B C D E.
• When the macro is called, the first two tokens following macname (A and B) are assigned to
the positional argument !1. C, D, and E are assigned to the positional argument !2. Thus, the
variables used for FREQUENCIES are A and B, and the variables used for CORRELATION are
C, D, and E.