topic Re: formats when exporting to SPSS in SAS Procedures

formats when exporting to SPSS

karlbang — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:14:47 GMT

I exported a data set to SPSS. Had to change

proc format;
	value degree 1=GOOD 2-5=POOR;
run;

into

proc format;
	value degree 1=GOOD 2=POOR 3=POOR 4=POOR 5=POOR;
run;

in order to get the formatted variable displayed correctly in SPSS. Any clue why ?

I used

proc export 
	data=sasuser.hernior(keep=(patient age PSTAT LOS))
	outfile='p:\public_html\SPSS\hernior.sav' 
	dbms=spss
	replace;
run;

(dbms=sav does not change results).

Re: formats when exporting to SPSS

Tom — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:26:03 GMT

I think that PROC EXPORT does not know how to translate ranges of values into the individual records. Either SPSS does not support applying the same "label" (decode) to multiple values, or PROC EXPORT doesn't know how to generate that syntax.

Part of the problem is that to SAS 2-5 includes ALL values from 2 to 5, not just the integer values you used in your second format. So a value like 2.5 or 4.3 would also be displayed as POOR.

You can save yourself some typing:

proc format;
	value degree 1='GOOD' 2,3,4,5='POOR';
run;

Re: formats when exporting to SPSS

karlbang — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 09:05:50 GMT

Thank you for the reply