[R] write.foreign and SPSS

[Chuck Cleland]

Erin Hodgess wrote:
> Dear R:
> 
> In the foreign library, there is a function "write.foreign".
> 
> When this is used to write to an SPSS file, there are 
> actually 2 files as output: a data file and a code file.
> 
> How would you coordinate these to become an SPSS sav file, 
> please?

   Using the warpbreaks dataset as an example, do the following in R:

library(foreign)
write.foreign(warpbreaks, "c:/warpbreaks.dat", "c:/warpbreaks.sps", 
package="SPSS")

   In SPSS, open the syntax file "warpbreaks.sps".  This syntax will 
read in the data and apply variable and value labels to variables that 
were factors in R.  I find you often need to edit the syntax file 
created by write.foreign just a bit in SPSS.  Here is what write.foreign 
produces for me:

DATA LIST FILE= c:/warpbreaks.dat  free
/ breaks wool tension

VARIABLE LABELS
breaks "breaks"
  wool "wool"
  tension "tension"

VALUE LABELS
/
wool
1 "A"
  2 "B"
/
tension
1 "L"
  2 "M"
  3 "H"

EXECUTE.

   You need to add some periods and quotation marks in critical places 
for this to run properly in SPSS.

DATA LIST FILE= "c:/warpbreaks.dat"  free
/ breaks wool tension .

VARIABLE LABELS
breaks "breaks"
  wool "wool"
  tension "tension" .

VALUE LABELS
/
wool
1 "A"
  2 "B"
/
tension
1 "L"
  2 "M"
  3 "H" .

EXECUTE.

   Once the data has been read in by running the code file, it can be 
saved in the SPSS format.

> Thanks so much!
> 
> R Version 2.1.0 Windows
> 
> Sincerely,
> Erin Hodgess
> mailto: hodgess at gator.uhd.edu
> 
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-- 
Chuck Cleland, Ph.D.
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