SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

MATRIX—END MATRIX 945
defined on a FILE HANDLE command that precedes the matrix program. The filename or file
handle must be a valid file specification.
• The OUTFILE specification is required on the first WRITE statement in a matrix program
(first in order of appearance, not necessarily in order of execution).
• If you omit the OUTFILE specification from a later WRITE statement, the statement uses the
most recently named file (in order of appearance) on a WRITE statement in the same matrix
program.
FIELD Specification
FIELD specifies the column positions of a fixed-format record to which the data should be
written.
• The FIELD specification is required.
• The start column, c1, is the number of the leftmost column of the output area.
• The end column, c2, is the number of the rightmost column of the output area.
• Both c1 and c2 are required, and both must be constants. For example,
FIELD = 9 TO 72 specifies that values should be written between columns 9 and 72
(inclusive) of each output record.
• The BY clause, if present, indicates how many characters should be allocated to the output
value of a single matrix element. The value w is the width of the area designated for each
value. For example, FIELD = 1 TO 80 BY 10 indicates that up to eight values
should be written per record, and that one should go between columns 1 and 10 (inclusive),
another between columns 11 and 20, and so on up to columns 71 and 80. The value on the
BY clause must evenly divide the length of the field. That is, c2 – c1 + 1 must be a multiple
of w.
• You can use the FORMAT specification (see below) to supply the same information as the
BY clause. If you omit the BY clause from the FIELD specification and do not specify a
format on the FORMAT specification, WRITE uses freefield format, separating matrix
elements by single blank spaces.
MODE Specification
MODE specifies the format of the matrix to be written. If MODE is not specified, the default
is RECTANGULAR.
RECTANGULAR Write the entire matrix. Each row starts a new record, and all of the values in
that row are present in that and (possibly) subsequent records. This is the
default if the MODE specification is omitted.
TRIANGULAR Write only the lower triangular entries and the main diagonal. Each row
begins a new record and may span more than one record. This mode may
save file space.
• A matrix written with MODE = TRIANGULAR must be square, but it need not be
symmetric. If it is not, values in the upper triangle are not written.
• A matrix written with MODE = TRIANGULAR may be read with MODE = SYMMETRIC.