How to download excel into spss

However, you can choose to skip over certain lines if necessary. One example where this occurs is in Qualtrics survey data output to CSV: The second row frequently contains variable labels, and oftentimes there may be a third row containing import IDs, and the data actually begins on line 4.

In the "Which delimiters appear between variables" area, select the check box that reflects the delimiter used in your data. The delimiter is what is used to separate values from each other within the data. If the text file is a. If you do not know which delimiter is used in the text file, refer to documentation that is associated with your data or ask someone who knows how the data file was created.

The options Remove leading spaces from string values and Removing trailing spaces from string values were added in SPSS version If you are using SPSS version 24 or earlier, you will not see these options on this window. SPSS attempts to guess what delimiters your file is using. Notice how that affects the parsing of variable Major :. Because SPSS thinks that both spaces and commas were used as delimiters, it thinks that the spaces occurring in the names of the majors delimit observations for subsequent variables, and hence, SPSS interprets individual words as readings for the adjacent variable s here, variables Height , Weight , and Smoking.

Clearing the check box next to Space will correct this, and the change will be reflected in the preview. Notice, however, that there was still at least one case where the observation for Major was incorrectly split across two columns. Notice how the value has double quotes " before the first word and after the last word. These quotes are being used as the text qualifiers; that is, they indicate where the observation starts and ends.

To correct this, we need to change the text qualifier option to Double quote. This step allows you to specify the format for each variable in the data file. In the "Specifications for variable s selected in the data preview" area, SPSS explains what criteria it uses to "guess" what format to use. In SPSS versions 24 and earlier, the default format chosen for a given variable is based on the values present in the first records.

You can select any of the variable names columns in order to change the variable name or alter its format. For example, in the example above we have selected the variable bday in the Data Preview area. It is important to check every variable to make sure the format and length is correct, rather than relying on SPSS to correctly identify the variable formats; this ensures that you control exactly how each variable was read. In the final step, you can choose to save the file format that you just defined for the current data file in case you will import data with the same structure and format in the future.

Saving the syntax would allow you to format future data files in the same way without having to manually select each of the options in the Import Wizard again. A preview of your data appears at the bottom of the dialog box. If you are satisfied with the way the preview looks, click Finish to finalize the import. This prompt attempts to simplify the import process, so certain actions like renaming variables before importing, or manually specifying variable formats are removed from this screen.

If you need this level of control, you can click the Advanced Options button; this will open the Text Import Wizard described in the previous section. Search this Guide Search. Importing Data from an Excel File To import data from an Excel spreadsheet into SPSS, first make sure your Excel spreadsheet is formatted according to these criteria: The spreadsheet should have a single row of variable names across the top of the spreadsheet in the first row.

Variable names should include ordinary letters, numbers, and underscores e. The data should begin in the first column, second row beneath the variable names row of the spreadsheet. Anything that is not part of the data itself e. Missing values for string or numeric variables have blank empty cells, or an appropriate predetermined missing value code such as The Open Data window will appear.

In the Worksheet dropdown menu, select the sheet from your Excel workbook that contains your data. If you have not assigned names to the sheets in your Excel workbook, the labels you see here will usually be Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3, etc.

You can only import one sheet from your Excel file at a time. If your variable names are in the first row of data, select the Read variable names from the first row of data check box. The options Remove leading spaces from string values and Remove trailing spaces from string values only affect variables that are imported as strings.

The former will remove any whitespace characters that appear at the start of the string, and the latter will remove any whitespace characters at the end of the string. This is optional, but is often convenient, since leading and trailing spaces can appear invisible to the user, but cause SPSS to think that otherwise identical strings are distinct. It is suggested to keep the default value unless you have a reason for altering it. Click OK when you are finished.

If you are using SPSS version 24 or earlier, you will instead see the Opening Excel Data Source window: The meaning of Read variable names from the first row of data checkbox, the Worksheet dropdown, and the Range box are the same as above.

In general, there are two patterns that SPSS recognizes: Delimited data: Each observation is delimited , or separated, by a particular character.

ID,Age,Gender A,41,F A,36,M C,27,F Fixed-width data: Rather than using delimiters between observations, the values of the variables are aligned vertically, so that a given variable always begins in a certain column position. Step 1 of 6 This window provides a preview of the data in your text file.

Step 2 of 6 If your data did not match a predefined format you will need to tell SPSS how your data is arranged, so that it understands where one column ends and the next begins. In the "How are your variables arranged" area, click the radio button that matches your data's format: Delimited: Variable values are delimited or separated in the file by a special character, such as a comma or a tab.

Fixed width: Variables are aligned in fixed width columns. If necessary, choose the symbol used to denote decimals. Then click Next. Click Next when you are finished.

Step 4 of 6 In the "Which delimiters appear between variables" area, select the check box that reflects the delimiter used in your data. Notice how that affects the parsing of variable Major : Because SPSS thinks that both spaces and commas were used as delimiters, it thinks that the spaces occurring in the names of the majors delimit observations for subsequent variables, and hence, SPSS interprets individual words as readings for the adjacent variable s here, variables Height , Weight , and Smoking.

Step 5 of 6 This step allows you to specify the format for each variable in the data file. Step 6 of 6 In the final step, you can choose to save the file format that you just defined for the current data file in case you will import data with the same structure and format in the future.

The Save Data As window will appear. Choose the directory where you want the file to be saved. Type a name for your file in the File name field.

This is how the latest version of SPSS assigns a data type to your variables. The percentage is the proportion of values in a particular column that must match a specific data type for SPSS to assign that data type to a variable. The value can be any number above If SPSS is unable to determine a data type on this basis it will assign the variable to a string type.

Obviously, the first thing to do here is to check that the data has come across successfully. If everything looks okay, the next stage is to check whether the various data parameters have been set correctly. Is numerical data correctly set as numerical, for example? To check this, click on the Variable View tab see red arrow, above.

This will bring up the variable view within SPSS.