The icon for “nominal” may contain a tiny “a” which indicates it's a string variable.įor SPSS versions 23 and earlier, we'll inspect our variable view and use the following rule: So how do we know if a variable is string or numeric? In SPSS versions 24 and higher, tiny icons in front of variable names tell us the variable type, format and even measurement level. For converting metric string variables -holding just numbers- into numeric variables, see SPSS Convert String to Numeric Variable.
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However, copying them into numeric variables makes sure you'll avoid all trouble. You may get away by leaving such variables as strings. Precisely, UNIANOVA does and ONEWAY does not accept string variables as factors.
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For example, the independent variable for ANOVA may or may not be a string variable depending on the exact command you use for it. If these are string variables, they may or may not cause trouble. We do sometimes analyze nominal variables with few categories -such as nationality, blood group or profession. Although such variables can be useful, we don't usually analyze them. Only nominal variables with many categoriesĮxamples are names of people, email addresses, passport numbers and so on. However, there's several ways to make a numeric copy of a string variable or reversely. The only way to change a string variable to numeric or reversely is ALTER TYPE. We'll see in a minute how variable view puts users on the wrong track here. However, numeric variables have several different formats that are often confused with variable types. There are no other variable types in SPSS than string and numeric. You can't do calculations on string variables -even if they contain only numbers.
![spss 23 how to rename variable spss 23 how to rename variable](https://condor.depaul.edu/sjost/it223/documents/image001.jpg)