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file-formatspss

What freeware/floss tools are available to help load data into SPSS?


I'm looking for a solution for producing SPSS format data files for loading into SPSS. The few offerings I can find are all commercial.

Has anyone experience with generating SPSS-format data files using open-source, freeware or home-grown solutions?

I'm not even sure that the file format is "open". Any hints appreciated (any language is fine, although java, perl or ruby preferred).


Solution

  • To close the loop on this question, I avoided the need to delve into proprietary data formats by writing a syntax file to read in a standard comma-separated text file that I exported from the system that was the source of my data.

    Syntax files themselves use a proprietary "language" to describe the load procedure. Unfortunately, open source alternatives to SPSS (e.g. PSPP) do not support the syntax language to the full extent needed to replicate this solution.