Temporary variable aliases in SPSS syntax?

Imagine I want to run a set of the same commands over multiple variables. The variables have distinct names, so I can't loop over them.

For example, these are the commands (variable action_time):

sort cases by technique.
split file by technique.
desc action_time (Z_VAR).

compute VAR_O3SD = 0.
execute.
if (abs(Z_VAR) > 3) VAR_O3SD = 1.
execute.

GRAPH
    /HISTOGRAM = action_time.

DATASET ACTIVATE dataset1.

DATASET COPY  No_Outliers.
DATASET ACTIVATE  No_Outliers.
FILTER OFF.
USE ALL.
SELECT IF (VAR_O3SD = 0).
EXECUTE.

DATASET ACTIVATE No_Outliers.

* Histogram (now with no outliers)

GRAPH
    /HISTOGRAM = action_time.

Is there an option for using a temporary variable and setting it once instead of replacing all the occurrences? Something like this:

var = action_time

sort cases by technique.
split file by technique.
desc var (Z_VAR).

... (rest of the commands)

I know about Scratch variables (e.g. COMPUTE #var = action_time). But the problem is that commands like GRAPH only work with standard variables.

Solution

You can do this with SPSS macros. After defining a macro, running the macro creates new syntax and runs it. In your example it could look like this:

define !runthisvar (!pos=!cmdend)
sort cases by technique.
split file by technique.
desc !1 (Z_VAR).

compute VAR_O3SD = 0.
execute.
if (abs(Z_VAR) > 3) VAR_O3SD = 1.
execute.

GRAPH     /HISTOGRAM = !1 .

DATASET ACTIVATE dataset1.
DATASET COPY  No_Outliers.
DATASET ACTIVATE  No_Outliers.
FILTER OFF.
USE ALL.
SELECT IF (VAR_O3SD = 0).
EXECUTE.

DATASET ACTIVATE No_Outliers.

* Histogram (now with no outliers)

GRAPH     /HISTOGRAM = !1 .
!enddefine.

Once you run this macro definition, you can call it using

!runthisvar somevarname .

This will create a copy of your original syntax, except instead of !1 the macro will write in the variable name you gave it in the macro call.

You can also define the macro to run on a list of variables, like this:

define !runthesevars (!pos=!cmdend)
!do !i !in(!1)
.
.
desc !i (Z_VAR).
.
.
!doend
!enddefine.

and the macro call will be

!runthesevars thisvar action_time thatvar.