SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

Transformation Expressions 47
original string remains intact. For example, SUBSTR(ALPHA6,3,1)=’*’
changes the third character of all values for ALPHA6 to *. If the replacement
string is longer or shorter than the substring, the replacement is
truncated or padded with blanks on the right to an equal length.
UPCASE(arg) Convert lower case to upper case. The argument can be a string
variable or a string. For example, UPCASE(NAME1) returns CHARLES
if the value of NAME1 is Charles.
MBLEN.BYTE(arg,a1) Return the number of bytes in the character at the specified position.
The argument is a string expression and a1 indicates the beginning
byte of the character in the specified string.
Search Functions
• The values returned by INDEX and/or RINDEX can be used as arguments to SUBSTR to pull
out substrings with the same beginning or ending character but with varying position and
length.
INDEX(a1, a2, a3) Return a number that indicates the position of the first occurrence of
a2 in a1. a1 is the string that is searched. a2 is the string variable or
string that is used in the search. If a3 is not specified, all of a2 is used.
For example, INDEX(ALPHA8,’**X*’) returns 2 for a case with the value
X**X**X* for the variable ALPHA8. The optional a3 is the number of
characters used to divide a2 into separate strings. Each substring is
used for searching and the function returns the first occurrence of any
of the substrings. With the same value X**X**X* for ALPHA8, both
INDEX(ALPHA8, ’**X*’, 2) and INDEX(ALPHA8, ’**X*’, 1) return 1. a3 must
be a positive integer and must divide evenly into the length of a2. The
target variable must be numeric. If a2 is not found within a1, the value
0 is returned.
LENGTH(arg) Return the length of the specified string. The argument can be a string
variable or a string. For example, LENGTH(LNAME) always returns 6 if
LNAME has an A6 format. The target variable must be numeric.
MAX(arg list) Return the maximum value across the argument list. For example,
MAX(LNAME,FNAME) selects the name that comes last in the sort order,
the first or the last name. MAX is also available as a numeric function.
MIN(arg list) Return the minimum value across the argument list. For example,
MIN(LNAME,FNAME) selects the name that comes first in the sort order,
the first or the last name. MIN is also available as a numeric function.
RINDEX(a1,a2,a3) Return a number indicating the position of the last occurrence of a2 in
a1. a1 is the string that is searched. a2 is the string variable or string
that is used in the search. If a3 is not specified, all of a2 is used. For
example, RINDEX(ALPHA8,’**X*’) returns 5 for a case with the value
X**X**X* for the variable ALPHA8. The optional a3 is the number of
characters used to divide a2 into separate strings. Each substring is
used for searching, and the function returns the last occurrence of any