NAME: CHRISTIAN JOHN A.

SALUDAR
PRELIM ASSIGNMENT #2

Instruction: In preparation for the next session, read the materials and references shared under
week3 topic.

Expected Output (TLA4 FOR CO2): Sample problem / exercises in week3 topic.

Upon reading the material entitled, “Chapter 3 Creating and Editing a Data File”, I have crossed
another topic which gave me new learnings and equipped me familiarity with new processes. It
is in this material where I learned how to enter and edit data including the necessity to first
determine how data should be analyzed in order to determine what variables to collect including
how they shall be arranged.
In scanning the material, the following questions were answered:
1. WHAT ARE COMMON ERRORS RESEARCHERS ENCOUNTER IN THE
COLLECTION OF DATA?
a. Researcher forget to first determine how their data be analyzed
b. Failure to collect key variables (an example is demographics like gender and
age)
c. Requesting a yes-no answers for a complex personal question
d. Inclusion of too much variables and forgetting a clear dependent variable which
should be measured in the study
e. Having a clear dependent variable but no clear independent variable which
should be affecting the dependent variable
2. WHAT ARE COMMON SOLUTIONS TO COMMON ERRORS?
a. In case of missing values, a researcher should deal with it rather than allowing
SPSS to use default settings for it
b. In order to avoid problem on entering data, order for data entry should be:
i. Identification variable
ii. Demographic Variable
iii. Other variables (arranged in logical order like quiz 1, quiz 2, etc.)
c. In order to avoid unorganized arrangement of data, a researcher should
remember that each row is one case (usually one person or subject) and each
column is a variable(variable name should be clear)
d. In cases where subjects be grouped depending on a variable, a variable should
make it clear which condition the subject belongs. Example is having a gender as
variable to distinguish male from female
3. HOW TO ACCESS THE INITIAL SPSS SCREEN?
1. Click start in the desktop
2. Click the IBM SPSS Statistics

3. Click the IBM SPSS Statistics 2

4. The initial data screen will appear

4. HOW TO ACCESS VARIABLE VIEW TAB?
a. Upon opening SPSS and in the data view screen, click variable view in the lower
left section

5. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENTIATING FACTOR BETWEEN DATA VIEW AND VARIABLE

VIEW?
a. Data View Screen allows the entering of data

b. Variable View Screen allows to name, label, and determine the specifications for
a particular variable (Name, Type, Width, Decimals, Label, Values, Missing,
Columns, Align, Measure and Role)
6. How to create a data file?
a. Enter all variable names
i. Open variable view screen
ii. Type the name of the variables one at a time in the first column
b. Format the variables depending on the specification of each variable?

c. Enter all data

7. WHAT ARE RULES TO BE FOLLOWED IN WRITING A VARIABLE NAME?

a. Each variable may be any length but shorter than 10 characters
 b. It must begin with a letter or the symbols @ or $
c. Variable name should not end with a period
d. Each variable name should be unique; duplicates are not allowed
e. Variable names are not sensitive to upper and lower case. D is equal to d
f. Certain variables cannot be used due to its unique meaning in SPSS. These are
all, ne, eq, to, le, lt, by, or, gt, and, not, ge, and with

8. HOW TO SET THE TYPE OF THE VARIABLE?

a. Click on a cell in any row under the Type (this is in variable view)

b. A small grayed box with three dots appear. Click on it.

c. Click on the type of variable you wish your variable to be. The most frequently
used variables are
i. Numeric
ii. String
9. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE DECIMAL COLUMN?
a. To identify the number of decimal places for each variable
10. HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE DECIMAL OF THE VARIABLE?
a. Click the cell under the decimal corresponding to the variable you wish to edit (in
variable view)

b. Enter the desired number of decimal places

11. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE WIDTH?

a. Determine the largest number or longest string that will occur for each variable.
b. Example: For 6 digits ID Number, the width would be 6 given all ID number are
composed only of 6 digits

12. HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE WIDTH OF THE VARIABLE?

a. Click the cell under the width column corresponding to the variable you wish to
edit (in variable view)
 b. The cell is highlighted and two small arrows appear on the right of the cell.
c. Use the arrow to increase or decrease the value of the width
d. You can also highlight the value and enter your desired value

13. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE LABEL?

a. The label allows the users to label any variable whose meaning is not clear
based from the variable name alone
b. This is also optional to be placed in the output in order to provide clarity and easy
interpretation of data
14. HOW TO PLACE A LABEL FOR A VARIABLE
a. Click on the cell under the variable column corresponding on the variable you
want to modify

b. Type the label you wish to assign to the variable. Maximum number of characters
is 256.
15. HOW TO ADJUST THE CELL LENGTH FOR LABEL
a. Position the cursor at the line to the right of the label variable in the upper section
of the data
 b. The cursor will become <->.
c. Adjust the length of the cell to the desired length

16. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF VALUES?

a. Value labels allow you to identify levels of a particular variable.
b. An example of this is assigning 1=female and 2=male
c. Advantage: SPSS can display these labels in your data and in the output view
d. SPSS allows up to 60 characters for each value label

17. HOW DO YOU ADD VALUES INTO A VARIABLE?

a. Click on a cell in any row under the Value corresponding to your variable (this is
in variable view)

b. A small grayed box with three dots appear. Click on it.

c. For each value, enter the value you wish to assign in the value box then add the
label in the label box then press add
 d. If you wish to remove a value, just click the value in the larger box next to add
and remove and click remove
e. If you wish to change a value, just click the value in the larger box next to add
and remove and click change
f. If you are done with encoding the value, you can press okay. If you wish to
cancel, click “cancel”

18. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE MISSING?

a. Used to designate missing values in your data
b. The values indicated in the missing column are not included in the analyses

19. HOW TO ADD MISSING INTO A VARIABLE?

a. Click on a cell in any row under the Missing corresponding to your variable (this
is in variable view)
b. A small grayed box with three dots appear. Click on it.
 c. Choose between the following options which best fit the option for the variable:
i. No missing values
ii. Discrete Missing Values – identifying what values are assigned as
missing values
iii. Range plus one optional discrete missing value – provides a range of
possible values and determine one discrete value out of the range

20. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF COLUMNS?

a. This allows the user to set how much room to allow for your data and labels
b. Pros and Cons of wide and narrow columns
i. Wide Columns – you can see the entire value of the cell and it will appear
as less crowded
ii. Narrow Columns – getting more variables to be seen in the screen but it
may truncate or distort variable names

21. HOW TO ADD COLUMNS VALUE FOR A VARIABLE?

a. Click the cell under the “columns” column corresponding to the variable you wish
to edit (in variable view)
 b. The cell is highlighted and two small arrows appear on the right of the cell.
c. Use the arrow to increase or decrease the value of the width
d. You can also highlight the value and enter your desired value

22. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF ALIGN?

a. The align option for variable allows the user to determine how the value of the
cell be aligned in the cell.
b. By default, numeric values are aligned to the right while strangle values are
aligned to the left

23. HOW TO MODIFY ALIGN SETTING FOR A VARIABLE?

a. Click the cell under the “align” column corresponding to the variable you wish to
edit (in variable view)
b. A drop down box shall appear. Select the desired alignment you wish for the
variable
 c. You can also click the drop down arrow to reveal possible options for the
alignment

24. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF MEASURE?

a. It allows the user to select between scale, ordinal, or nominal as the nature of the
data that he or she will be entering for the variable
i. Scale – Intrinsic numeric meaning that allows for mathematical
manipulation
ii. Ordinal – Have intrinsic order but mathematical manipulations are
meaningless
iii. Nominal – Utilized for identification but does not have intrinsic order

25. HOW TO MODIFY MEASURE SETTING FOR A VARIABLE?

a. Click the cell under the “measure” column corresponding to the variable you wish
to edit (in variable view)
 b. A drop down box shall appear. Select the desired measure you wish for the
variable
c. You can also click the drop down arrow to reveal possible options for the
measure

26. WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF ROLE?

a. This function allows for a researcher to tag which variable is an independent
variable (predictors) and which are dependent variable (criterion variables)
b. Common values for function used in data are:
i. None
ii. Input – predictor/independent variable
iii. Target – criterion/dependent variable

27. HOW TO MODIFY THE FUNCTION SETTING FOR A VARIABLE?

a. Click the cell under the “measure” column corresponding to the variable you wish
to edit (in variable view)
 b. A drop down box shall appear. Select the desired function you wish for the
variable
c. You can also click the drop down arrow to reveal possible options for the
measure

28. HOW TO SAVE A FILE?

a. Click File
 b. Click Save/Save As

c. In the Save Data As Window, choose the folder to where you want to save
the file

d. In the file name, type the desired file name then after, click save. This is
applicable for first time saving of the file. If the file is already saved, then
the user can automatically go to file and press save in order to save the
changes he made to the file.

29. WHAT ARE WAYS OF ENTERING DATA IN SPSS? HOW ARE THEY DONE?
a. Entering by variable
 i. Click on the first empty cell under the first variable
ii. Enter the value for that variable and case
iii. Press down arrow or enter
iv. Then type the value for that variable of the next case
v. Repeat step iii and iv until you finish entering data for that variable
b. Entering by case or participant
i. Click on the first empty cell for the first subject under the first variable
ii. Enter the value in the cell corresponding for that case and variable
iii. After, press right arrow or tab
iv. Enter the next value of the cell corresponding for the same case but for
the next variable
v. Repeat step iii and iv until you finish all variables for one participant
vi. Proceed to the next case if done with step v

30. HOW TO CHANGE A CELL VALUE(IN DATA VIEW)

a. Click on the cell

b. Highlight the value in that cell

c. Type the new value

 d. Then move to the next cell by clicking enter, tab, or arrow keys

31. HOW TO INSERT A NEW CASE

a. Click on the case number above where you want to insert the new case

b. Right click then click insert cases

c. A new line will appear and will push the cases down by exactly one line

32. HOW TO INSERT A NEW VARIABLE

a. Click on the variable to the right of the location where you want to insert the
variable

b. Right click then click insert variable

 c. A new column will appear and push all variables exactly one column to the right
d. After that, you may name and format the new variable

33. HOW TO COPY OR CUT CELLS?

a. Highlight a:
i. Row, highlight the row by clicking on the case number
ii. Column, highlight the column by clicking on the variable name

b. You can also use shift + arrow keys

c. Right click on the highlighted cells which you desire to copy or cut

d. Click copy if you wish to keep the cell values on where they are located or cut if
you wish to delete the cells from the cell values on where they are located

34. HOW TO PASTE CELLS

 a. After doing the cut or copy process, click on the location where you want to paste
the cell values. Right click then press paste

b. There are risks in pasting cell values:

i. You can erase any existing data when the pasted cell values overlap with
the existing cell values
ii. You can place a value for one variable like gender on the location of
another variable like marital status.
c. To avoid errors enlisted in letter b, the following suggestions are available:
i. Save your file before cutting and pasting in order to have a chance to go
back if error is encountered
ii. Create a space for the new data by inserting new cases and variables
iii. Be careful to align variables appropriately when pasting (to avoid pasting
cell value from one variable into another)

35. HOW TO SEARCH FOR DATA

a. Click on the edit button in the menu bar

b. Click on find
 c. The Find and Replace Window appears
d. To find a value, type the searched value in the find box

e. Click Find Next (This will highlight the searched value in the data entry)
f. If you want to confine your finding into one column or row, you can highlight first
the row or column by selecting the case number or variable name respectively
before doing step a.

36. HOW TO MAKE VARIABLES APPEAR IN SCREEN

a. If the variable cannot be seen in the screen, you can drag the scroll bar up,
down, left or right in order to reveal on screen the hidden parts of the data entry.
b. You can also use the arrows on the scroll bar for this function
ANSWER TO EXERCISES:
1. I was able to enter the data into SPSS.

2. I was able to add a variable names school having the following values
a. 1 = University of the Immaculate Conception
b. 2 = University of Southeastern Philippines

3. The following are not allowed as variable name

a. sex. – it contains a period in the end
b. not – this is a reserved term in the SPSS Program
4. Upon changing the number of possible decimals of gpa, only the whole number appears in
the data screen
5. Based on the data entry, Rathbun Dawne (ID Number 519444) got a score of 121.

6. The following variables are defined as because of:

a. Ethnicity – Nominal
i. Ethnicity is generally defined as a nominal variable. The only exception to
ethnicity being nominal is when we are looking into the relative size of
different ethic groups in a region or a certain area. In that case, ethnicity can
be defined as an ordinal variable.
b. Extrcred – Ordinal
i. This variable addresses the question, “did extra credit?”. This is ordinal in
the sense that it’s value cannot be compared to other, but have an order
where 1=”no extra credit” is lesser than 2=”yes extra credit can be received”
due to the additional credit one obtains when specifying the answer “yes”
c. quiz 4 – Scale
i. Quiz 4 as a variable is defined as a scale variable since it sets its true zero (0
mark). It contains as well the characteristic of a nominal(it defines the score
of the student), ordinal (it defines the order of scores from least to greatest),
and it is open for mathematical manipulation like comparing scores (twice
compared that of, thrice compared to, etc.). If quiz 4 only states a pass or fail
 rating, then quiz 4 can become a nominal variable. It will not vary on how
the quiz 4 is expressed in the data entry.
d. grade – Nominal
i. Grade as a variable is defined as a nominal variable since it only states the
grade of a person using alphabet based on an existing range. Given that it is a
representation, we cannot compare that A is greater than B as well as A is
twice as large as B. Hence, it only possess the characteristics of being
nominal. In cases where the numeric value of a grade is indicated, it can
create a sense of order (least to greatest) then it can be ordinal or even scale
(if we can compare one grade to another).
7. I was able to set the variables as well as enter the data on the data entry:

a.

b.
8. I was able to set the variales as well as enter the data on the data entry:

a.
b.