SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

ADD VALUE LABELS
ADD VALUE LABELS varlist value ’label’ value ’label’...[/varlist...]
Example
Overview
ADD VALUE LABELS JOBGRADE ’P’ ’Parttime Employee’
’C’ ’Customer Support’.
ADD VALUE LABELS adds or alters value labels without affecting other value labels already
defined for that variable. In contrast, VALUE LABELS adds or alters value labels but deletes
all existing value labels for that variable when it does so.
Basic Specification
The basic specification is a variable name and individual values with associated labels.
Syntax Rules
• Labels can be assigned to values of any previously defined variable. It is not necessary
to enter value labels for all of a variable’s values.
• Each value label must be enclosed in apostrophes or quotation marks.
• When an apostrophe occurs as part of a label, enclose the label in quotation marks or
enter the internal apostrophe twice with no intervening space.
• Value labels can contain any characters, including blanks.
• The same labels can be assigned to the same values of different variables by specifying
a list of variable names. For string variables, the variables on the list must have the same
defined width (for example, A8).
• Multiple sets of variable names and value labels can be specified on one ADD VALUE
LABELS command as long as each set is separated from the previous one by a slash.
• To continue a label from one command line to the next, specify a plus sign (+) before
the continuation of the label and enclose each segment of the label, including the blank
between them, in apostrophes or quotes.
Operations
• Unlike most transformations, ADD VALUE LABELS takes effect as soon as it is encountered
in the command sequence. Thus, special attention should be paid to its position
among commands. See “Command Order” on p. 8 for more information.
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