[Rd] write.foreign (SPSS) writes illegal SPSS variable names (PR#9006)

[uhkeller at web.de]

Full_Name: Ulrich Keller
Version: Version 2.3.1 Patched (2006-06-05 r38290)
OS: Windows XP SP2
Submission from: (NULL) (158.64.77.159)


The variable names specified in SPSS syntax files created by
write.foreign(...,package="SPSS") contain hyphens ("-") if these were present in
the R variable names. Hyphens are illegal in SPSS variable names. As a result,
the syntax file is not executed by SPSS and no data is loaded.

According to the SPSS Base Syntax Guide, the only legal characters apart from
letters and numbers are "the period, underscore, and the characters $, #, and
@".