Is there a "native" SPSS way to loop through some variable names? All I want to do is take a list of variables (that I define) and run the same procedure for them:
pseudo-code - not really a good example, but gets the point across...
for i in varlist['a','b','c']
do
FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=varlist[i] / ORDER=ANALYSIS.
end
I've noticed that people seem to just use R or Python SPSS plugins to achieve this basic array functionality, but I don't know how soon I can get those configured (if ever) on my installation of SPSS.
SPSS has to have some native way to do this...right?
There are two easy solutions for looping through variables (easier compared to using Python in SPSS).
1) DO REPEAT-END REPEAT
The draw back is that you can use DO REPEAT-END REPEAT mainly only for data transformations - for example COMPUTE, RECODE etc. Frequencies are not allowed. For example:
DO REPEAT R=REGION1 TO REGION5.
COMPUTE R=0.
END REPEAT.
2) DEFINE-!ENDDEFINE (macro facility)
You can do Frequencies in a loop of variables using macro command. For example:
DEFINE macdef (!POS !CHAREND('/'))
!DO !i !IN (!1)
frequencies variables = !i.
!DOEND
!ENDDEFINE.
macdef VAR1 VAR2 VAR3 /.