Hi to All,

I have a very simple question: when I am trying to export data to spss, the export menu transform the .rec files into .sps files, ie syntax and not .sav files, ie data files. Any idea why? Thanks for your help Best Regards Dr Jean-Francois Trani , London.

The explanation is quite simple. SPSS, SAS and other commercial software companies like M$ are using closed (proprietary) data formats, which they are not documenting. Therefore we cannot export to .sav format.

This is in contrast to e.g. EpiData or Stata, where the file formats are fully documented and available for general download. I suggest you write an e-mail to SPSS and ask why they have a secret data file format. I would be astonished if they even answered your mail. The system of closed formats is even more strange. Earlier we had (in my hospital department) license for SAS for some years (cost around 1200 Euro per year for one PC) for about what EpiData Analysis can do. And now we cannot even use our licensed exe files to read the data again......

This is one of the reasons why we develop EpiData Software. ... For users in extensive need of converting data I suggest to look at the EpiC utility we develop or you can look at StatTransfer, which is working quite well and has the policy "once paid - use as long as you like".

Kind regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association