Opening Data Files with SPSS

The following instructions attempt to explain how to get either SPSS to open datasets. These
instructions were tested with SPSS 17.
Opening an SPSS file (*.sav) with SPSS
In order to open SPSS files (*.sav) in SPSS, you have a choice of two methods:
Method 1. Open the file by double-clicking on it.
a. Simply double-click on the *.sav file. This will open the SPSS application (if it is
not open already) and load the data file.
Method 2. Open the file from the SPSS menu.
a. Open the SPSS application (In Windows, Start > Programs > SPSS Inc >
Statistics 17.0 > Statistics 17.0 The file has a sigma icon ().)

b. Once SPSS is open, click on File > Open > Data

c. In the Open Data dialog box, browse to the folder that contains the SPSS

data file (*.sav) and select the file. This file will now open in SPSS.

Opening an Excel File with SPSS

a. Follow Method 2 above till Step b.

b. On the Open Data dialog box, select Excel (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm) from the Files of
Type dropbox.
c. Now browse to, and select your Excel spreadsheet file and click Open.

d. Once you click Open, SPSS will display a dialog asking you for the worksheet
and range of data you want to import from the spreadsheet.

e. If you only have ONE worksheet, and you want to use ALL the data from it, leave
the default option and click OK. Otherwise, change the selection of the worksheet
and range of data.
Make sure your variables correspond to the columns of your spreadsheet
and the first row contains the variable names. Otherwise, uncheck the
Read variable names from the first row of data checkbox in the dialog
box in Step d.