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Separating a string of comma separate values in SPSS

Possible Duplicate:
Analyze multiple response field from google doc form

The data get's produced by Google Forms. The user has the ability to check for option in a multi-checkbox:

  • "Fishing"
  • "Boating"
  • "Hiking"
  • "Climbing"

If the user checks "Fishing" and "Boating" the result I get is formatted as: "Fishing,Boating"

How do I reformat that data in a way where I can easily access whether a particular user has check each individual box?

What's the easiest way to do this in SPSS?

This problem came up over at: http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/f0r/2012_less_wrong_census_survey_call_for/7nob

Solution

  • You could parse the data with string-math in SPSS.

    http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/spss/modules/functions.htm

    Section 4 gives some examples. This would allow you to break them into their own variables and either keep it as String or change it to Binary.