ONE-DAY WORKSHOPS:

• (see separate announcement for new Python workhops)

• WRITING AND USING SPSS SYNTAX

• WRITING AND USING SPSS MACROS AND OMS

JUNE, JULY 2008: CAMBRIDGE, BIRMINGHAM, UK

ASSESS is an independent user group for SPSS, a computer package for analysing and presenting data. It is run by users, for users and is completely independent of manufacturers of the software. In 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2003 ASSESS gave one-day workshops on the subject of SPSS macros and syntax and last year ran three day workshops on syntax, macros and output.

Two one day workshops are provisionally planned to be held:

• in the Helmore building, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge on 26th & 27th June 2008

• repeated at the Business School, University of Birmingham on 10th & 11th July 2008

The workshops will be led by Chris Stride (University of Sheffield) and Peter Watson (MRC, Cambridge). Below are details of the provisional agendas for one-day syntax workshop and for the macros and OMS one day workshop

The workshops are open to users of SPSS who are familiar with the menu toolbar but have limited knowledge of syntax. The booking form is available in pdf format and in word format. More details will be added to this page in due course. Please email us any interest or suggestions for other workshops or if you have any problems with the form.

Provisional Agenda for one-day syntax workshop:

SYNTAX TOPICS

• Starting with syntax
  • why use SPSS syntax, writing and running syntax; determining when  your command runs
• Some simple SPSS commands
• opening and saving files, describing data via frequencies, descriptives and crosstabs
• Reading data into SPSS from other formats
  • handling text format, Excel format data
  • defining and documenting data
  • variable names, variable labels, value labels, missing value, formatting data
• Creating new variables
  • recoding, computing, count, performing calculations on subsets via DO IF - END IF, making multiple calculations using DO REPEAT loops
• Manipulating cases
  • selecting subsets of data for analysis, filtering files, splitting files, sorting cases
• Manipulating files
  • aggregating files, restructuring files, matching files, adding cases, updating files
• Data Management: a worked example
  • best practice for creating and managing a complex data set

Provisional Agenda for one-day macros & OMS workshop:

MACRO TOPICS

• What is a Macro?
• Creating and running a macro
  • calling a macro
  • inputting values into a macro
• Loops
  • !DO !DOEND
• Conditional structures
  • !IF !IFEND
• Nesting macros inside other macros
• Including macros from external files
  • INCLUDE
• Macros which are available on the web

OUTPUT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (OMS) TOPICS

• What is the Output Management System (OMS)?
• OMS syntax commands
  • specifying pivot tables
  • outputting tabular information to a SPSS data file
  • creating richer tables with SPLIT FILE
• Pivot trays
  • what are they and how do we access them?
  • incorporating pivot tray diagnostics into OMS
• Combining SPSS tabular output with existing data files
  • use with MATCH FILES