SPSS syntax program for checking data entry

California Inventory for Family Assessment (CIFA)

by Paul D. Werner, Ph.D. and Robert-Jay Green, Ph.D.

Data Entry Instructions for Computer Scoring

(182 item -- 4 point response format)

SPSS data entry

An SPSS syntax program for checking SPSS data entry

At the link indicated we provide an SPSS syntax program to check SPSS data entry in the CIFA data file that you specify. Save the program onto your disk.

To use the syntax program, do the following:

1. Open SPSS and then click File->Open->Syntax. Navigate to the syntax file and open it.

2. Open the SPSS sav file or SPSS portable file containing the data that you want to check.

3. Run the syntax file: Run->All

4. The output window will provide information to help you identify errors in your text data file.

Click this link for a description of the output

5. Find the problems in data entry that check_por.sps has identified and fix them.

6. Run check_por.sps on the corrected text file.

7. Beware: This syntax program will not “catch” data entry errors that do not look “weird.” Here are some examples of errors that the program will not catch:

· you enter a respondent’s answer to questions 1, 2, and 3 in the entry spaces for questions 2, 3, and 4

· you enter an incorrect but “reasonable appearing” age or education code

For this reason you must take responsibility for checking each element of your data entry very carefully.

Return to the CIFA SPSS Data Entry page

Return to the California Inventory for Family Assessment home page

Contact information for the authors of the California Inventory for Family Assessment