{"id":525,"date":"2015-11-02T15:37:22","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T15:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/?p=465"},"modified":"2021-09-02T07:54:47","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T05:54:47","slug":"spss-autorecode-command","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/spss-autorecode-command\/","title":{"rendered":"SPSS AUTORECODE – Quick Tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

This tutorial explains SPSS’ AUTORECODE command and shows how to use it properly on nominal_strings.sav<\/a>, a screenshot of which is shown below. We recommend downloading this data file and following along with the steps in this tutorial.<\/p>\n\n\n SPSS AUTORECODE - Data View\n<\/span>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - What Is It?<\/h2>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE creates a new numeric variable<\/a> from a string variable<\/a>. The string values are recoded into integer numbers (1, 2, 3 and so on). Each number then receives the string value it represents as a value label.
\nRegarding our data file, note in variable view<\/a> that emot_1<\/span> through emot_5<\/span> are string variables. We'll now AUTORECODE the first one and inspect the result with the syntax<\/a> below.<\/p>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - Syntax Example 1<\/h2>\n\n
*1. Create numeric variable emo_1 from string emot_1.
<\/strong>
autorecode emot_1 \/into emo_1.

*2. Show values and value labels in following output tables.
<\/strong>
set tnumbers both.

*3. Inspect result.
<\/strong>
frequencies emo_1.<\/div>\n

Result<\/h2>\n\nSPSS AUTORECODE - Frequency Table<\/span>\n\n

Note in this table that the string values are first sorted alphabetically before they're assigned to numbers 1 and 2.<\/p>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - PRINT Subcommand<\/h2>\n\n

Whenever you use AUTORECODE, it's nice to see which string values are converted to which numeric values. We can have SPSS print this coding scheme in the output viewer window<\/a> by simply adding a PRINT subcommand as shown below.<\/p>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - Syntax Example 2<\/h2>\n\n
*Print coding scheme in output viewer window.
<\/strong>
autorecode emot_2
\/into emo_2
\/print.<\/div>\n

Result<\/h2>\n\nSPSS AUTORECODE - Coding Scheme<\/span>\n\n

Note that there's something awkward here: it seems as if 2 new values are converted into 3 new values. What's going on is that the new value 1 indicates an empty (zero character) string value. In SPSS logic, that's just another distinct (and valid) string value.
\nWe can see in data view<\/a> that the second case indeed has an empty string value on emot_2<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - BLANKS Subcommand<\/h2>\n\n

We just saw that AUTORECODE treats empty string values the same as non empty string values. However, we usually see empty string values as missing values<\/a> and we like to have them recoded last. We can do so by adding a BLANKS subcommand as shown in the syntax below, step 2. Before doing so, we first delete all new variables.<\/p>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - Syntax Example 3<\/h2>\n\n
*1. Delete all new variables.
<\/strong>
add files file *\/keep id to emot_5.

*2. Blank strings should become missing values in new variable(s).
<\/strong>
autorecode emot_2
\/into emo_2
\/blank missing
\/print.<\/div>\n

Result<\/h2>\n\nSPSS AUTORECODE - Coding Scheme with missings in output<\/span>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - GROUP Subcommand<\/h2>\n\n

At this point, note that each AUTORECODE example we ran resulted in a different coding scheme. When we take a close look at our data, however, we see that our string variables mostly contain similar values. This suggests that the same answer categories were used for these 5 questions.
\nIn this common scenario, we usually want to have our new variables consistently coded. That is, we want to have identical value labels over such a set of variables. This is accomplished by adding a GROUP subcommand as shown below.<\/p>\n\n

SPSS AUTORECODE - Syntax Example 4<\/h2>\n\n
*1. Delete all new variables.
<\/strong>
add files file *\/keep id to emot_5.

*2. Use same coding scheme for all variables
<\/strong>
autorecode emot_1 to emot_5
\/into emo_1 to emo_5
\/group
\/blank missing
\/print.<\/div>\n

Result<\/h2>\n\nSPSS AUTORECODE - Coding Scheme with missings in output<\/span>\n\n

Note that we basically converted the entire data file in one go with our last command. However, there's one thing we don't like: value 2 is used for “Don't know \/ no answer”. There nothing really wrong with that but it's a bit awkward that this value is among the values used for emotional expressions.
\nAUTORECODE doesn't have any option for circumventing this but we'll now offer two ways for correcting it.<\/p>\n\n

Option 1: Basic Syntax<\/h2>\n\n

One option here is to RECODE<\/a> 2 into 7 and then adjust the value labels manually. Fortunately, we can do so for all relevant variables simultaneously as shown below.<\/p>\n\n

*1. Recode 2 into 7 for all new variables.
<\/strong>
recode emo_1 to emo_5 (2 = 7).
execute.

*2. Remove value label from 2 and apply value labels to 6 and 7.
<\/strong>
add value labels emo_1 to emo_5
2 ''
6 '(Blank)'
7 'Don''t know \/ no answer'.<\/div>\n

Option 2: Recode with Value Labels Tool<\/h2>\n\n

A much more elegant option for dealing with the “Don't know” values is using our SPSS - Recode with Value Labels Tool<\/a>. After installing it, it can swap values 2 and 5 together with their value labels by running the syntax below.<\/p>\n\n

*Note: syntax below only runs after installing SPSS Recode With Value Labels Tool.
<\/strong>
SPSSTUTORIALS RECODEWITHVALUELABELS
VARIABLES = 'emo_1 to emo_5'
OLDVALUES = '2 5'
NEWVALUES = '5 2'.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPSS AUTORECODE converts a categorical string variable into a numeric variable with value labels.<\/p>\n

This tutorial quickly walks you through with some examples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[245],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spss-tutorials.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}