Yes. SPSS export creates 2 files.
xxxx.txt has all the data as a text file with no delimiters and xxxx.sps has the short SPSS program to read the data and, if you wish, save an SPSS data file. You need to look at the .sps file to see what commands it is using. In particular, look at the .txt file and the commands to be sure that the columns line up.
When reading plain text files in SPSS or SAS, you have to specify what columns are used for each variable, the type of variable, and number of decimal places. The short program in the .sps or .sas file do this for you.
SPSS can easily read STATA data files. You might find it easier to export to STATA and use commands like this in SPSS:
get stata data="c:\data\xxxx.dta". exe.
With your version of SPSS, you probably also have the option of using menu commands to get the data. It has been many years since I used SPSS on a PC. This will be MUCH easier if you have data in STATA format.
Jamie
On 2010-10-17, at 9:31 AM, epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca wrote:
I have the same problems exporting to SPSS. These recommendations apply also to an SPSS exporting?