[R] SPSS long variable names

joris meys jorismeys at gmail.com
Tue Oct 13 16:41:33 CEST 2009


Just for clarity : the csv format will solve your problem, as the
restrictions on the variable names will only depend on the program you
use to load them. I never experienced problems with variable names
using csv to switch datasets between SPlus, R, SAS and SPSS.

Cheers
Joris

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 4:35 PM, joris meys <jorismeys at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry to be so blunt, but I cannot believe PSPP can't save a dataset
> as a .csv file for example. That should be the prefered format to
> transport a dataset to any other statistical package, including R. csv
> files are universal.
>
> Cheers
> Joris
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 3:30 PM, Orvalho Augusto <orvaquim at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks for the answer.
>>
>> Hmisc uses read.spss from the foreign package. And so it does not
>> solve my trouble.
>>
>> I need to read the long names on the SPSS dataset.
>>
>> Caveman
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 3:01 PM, John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca> wrote:
>>> library(Hmisc) spss.get may do it but it's been some time since I used it.
>>>
>>> --- On Sat, 10/10/09, Orvalho Augusto <orvaquim at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> From: Orvalho Augusto <orvaquim at gmail.com>
>>>> Subject: [R] SPSS long variable names
>>>> To: r-help at r-project.org
>>>> Received: Saturday, October 10, 2009, 12:14 PM
>>>> Hello guys I am new to this list and
>>>> for R too.
>>>>
>>>> I am wondering if there is a patch for the SPSS reading
>>>> code on the
>>>> foreign package, in order to be able to read long variable
>>>> names.
>>>> Right now read.spss() just trunc the names to 8
>>>> characters.
>>>>
>>>> Or if someone could help me on other way:
>>>> I have to process everyday a lot of SPSS Syntax Files and
>>>> Dat files
>>>> that come from one system that can only export data on
>>>> through that
>>>> way.
>>>>
>>>> I use PSPP to generate the spss data file (sav) that I read
>>>> with R.
>>>> >From R I can export to MySQL, DBF and STATA to satisfy
>>>> the needs of
>>>> different guys here.
>>>>
>>>> The problem is the limit of 8 characters long on variable
>>>> names.
>>>>
>>>> Can someone help on that?
>>>>
>>>> Caveman
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>




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