I would like to conditionally process blocks of syntax where the condition is based on the active data set.
Within an SPSS macro, you can conditionally process a block of syntax using the !IF/!IFEND macro command. However, as far as I can tell, the user is required to explicitly give a value to the flag by either using the !LET command (!LET !FLAG = 1), or by using a Macro input variable. This is wildly different from my experience with other languages, where I can write code that has branching logic based on the data I'm working with.
Say that there is a block of syntax that I only want to run if there are at least 2 records in the active data set. I can create a variable in the data set which is equal to the number of records using the AGGREGATE function, but I can't find a way to make a macro variable equal to that value in a way that is usable as a !IF condition. Below is a very simple version of what I'd like to do.
COMPUTE DUMMY=1.
AGGREGATE
/OUTFILE = * MODE = ADDVARIABLES
/BREAK DUMMY
/NUMBER_OF_CASES = N.
!LET !N_CASES = NUMBER_OF_CASES.
!IF (!N_CASES > 1) !THEN
MEANS TABLES = VAR1 VAR2 VAR3.
!IFEND
Is what I'm attempting possible? Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.
Following is a way to put a value from the dataset into a macro, which you can then use wherever you need - including in another macro.
First we'll make a little dataset to recreate your example:
data list free/var1 var2 var3.
begin data
1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
end data.
* this will create the number of cases value:
AGGREGATE /OUTFILE = * MODE = ADDVARIABLES /BREAK /NUMBER_OF_CASES = N.
Now we can send the value into a macro - by writing a separate syntax file with the macro definition.
do if $casenum=1.
write out='SomePath\N_CASES.sps' /"define !N_CASES() ", NUMBER_OF_CASES, " !enddefine.".
end if.
exe.
insert file='SomePath\N_CASES.sps'.
The macro is now defined and you can use the value in calculations (e.g if you want to use it for analysis of a different dataset, or later in your syntax when the current data is not available).
for example:
compute just_checking= !N_CASES .
You can also use it in your macro as in your example - you'll see that the new macro can't read the !N_CASES macro as is, that's why you need the !eval() function:
define !cond_means ()
!IF (!eval(!N_CASES) > 1) !THEN
MEANS TABLES = VAR1 VAR2 VAR3.
!IFEND
!enddefine.
Now running the macro will produce nothing if there is just one line in your data, and will run means if there was more than one line:
!cond_means.
Related
I have a table with about 500 variables and 2000 cases. The type of these variables varies. My supervisor has asked me to produce a table listing all the numeric variables, along with their maximums and minimums. I am supposed to use SPSS because R apparently messes up the value labels.
I've only done very basic things in SPSS before this, like finding statistics for single variables, and I'm not sure how to do this. I think I should probably do something like:
*Create new table*
DATASET DECLARE maxAndMin.
*Loop through all variables: Use conditional statement to identify numeric variables*
DO REPEAT R=var1 TO varN.
FREQUENCIES VARIABLES /STATISTICS=MINIMUM
END REPEAT
*Find max and minimum*
I'm not sure how to go about this though. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The following code will first make a list of all numeric variables in the dataset (and store it in a macro called !nums) and then it will run an analysis of those variables to tell you the mean, maximum and minimum of each:
SPSSINC SELECT VARIABLES MACRONAME="!nums" /PROPERTIES TYPE= NUMERIC.
DESCRIPTIVES !nums /STATISTICS=MEAN MIN MAX.
You can use the following code to create a tiny dataset to test the above code on:
data list list/n1 (f1) t1(a1) n2(f1) t2(a1).
begin data
1 "a" 34 "b"
2 "a" 23 "b"
3 "a" 52 "b"
4 "a" 71 "b"
end data.
If SUMMARIZE produces a nice enough table for you, here is a "non-extension" way of doing it.
file handle mydata /name="<whatever/wherever>".
data list free /x (f1) y (a5) z (F4.2).
begin data.
1 yes 45.67
2 no 32.00
3 maybe .
4 yes 22.02
5 no 12.79
end data.
oms select tables
/destination format=sav outfile=mydata
/if subtypes="Descriptive Statistics" /tag="x".
des var all.
omsend tag="x".
get file mydata.
summarize Var1 Mean Minimum Maximum /format list nocasenum nototal
/cells none /statistics none /title "Numeric Variables Only".
or use a DATASET command instead of file handle if you don't need the file on disk.
I would like to find the measure of a variable using syntax and then use this in an If-statement. Is this possible using syntax?
For example, if I have two variables a (nominal) and b (ordinal):
DO IF (a is nominal?)
...
END IF
You can create a list of all the nominal variables in your data. In the following example the list will be stored under the macro call !noms:
SPSSINC SELECT VARIABLES MACRONAME="!noms" /PROPERTIES LEVEL=NOMINAL.
* now, for example you can run frequencies on all nominal variables.
freq !noms.
If you want to transform all the nominal variables you can use do repeat. For example:
do repeat NomVrs=!noms.
recode NomVrs ("cat2"="persian").
end repeat.
If you want to test only one specific variable (in this example called AmInominal), you can use a macro this way:
define DoIfNom ()
!do !vr !in (!eval(!noms))
!if (!vr="AmInominal") !then
variable label AmInominal "this variable is indeed nominal".
recode AmInominal ("cat2"="persian").
frequencies AmInominal.
!ifend
!doend
!enddefine.
DoIfNom.
I have a Julia function that takes a few input arguments and uses them to perform multiple operations. In order to get one of those operations to work properly I need to be able to compute a symbol that matches the user input. For example the function looks something like this:
function func(arg1,arg2)
symb_arg1 = ## get the symbol for input into arg1
symb_arg2 = ## get the symbol for input into arg2
println(symb_arg1)
println(symb_arg2)
## Do some operations using arg1, arg2, symb_arg1, symb_arg1
end
I am hoping to achieve the following behavior:
a = 25
b = rand(27,55,18)
func(a,b) ## prints :a and :b
The difficulty here is to get the function to compute a symbol containing the actual name of the variable, rather than the value of the variable. This post provides the following macro that almost does what I want:
macro mymacro(ex)
Expr(:quote,ex) # this creates an expression that looks like :(:(x + 2))
end
This macro works well for doing the following:
a = rand(27,15)
symb_a = #mymacro(a) ## prints :a
However, using this macro inside my function will not produce the desired effect. Specifically, if I define my function as:
function func_bad(arg1,arg2)
symb_arg1 = #mymacro(arg1)
symb_arg2 = #mymacto(arg2)
println(symb_arg1)
println(symb_arg2)
## Do some operations using arg1, arg2, symb_arg1, symb_arg1
end
And then run the commands:
a = 25
b = rand(27,55,18)
func_bad(a,b) ## prints :arg1 and :arg2 (instead of the desired :a and :b)
Of course, one simple (but not so elegant) solution is to add additional input arguments for the function so that the user is responsible for creating the symbols. However this is more of a last resort. I would prefer the function be able to automatically create the symbols. Any idea as to how I can modify my function or the macro to achieve this behavior?
The simple answer is that this is not possible; there is an abstraction barrier that prevents functions from seeing implementation details of their callers. All they get is the values, which is a crucial property for robust and clear programs.
One thing you could do is write a macro to transform the call site:
#with_syms func(a, b)
into something like
func((:a,a), (:b,b))
passing symbol-value pairs into the function.
Another slightly different design would be to provide macro wrappers for all functions that need this behavior, so that calls would look like #func(a,b). You could factor out the argument list transformation to a helper function; each macro would look like
macro func(args...)
:(func($(pair_with_symbols(args)...)))
end
I am currently trying to create dynamic variable names based on the valuelabels of the passed Argument. Currently, I have something like this:
COMPUTE counter = 0.
APPLY DICTIONARY FROM *
/SOURCE VARIABLES = V601
/TARGET VARIABLES = counter.
DEFINE !macro1 (!POS !CMDEND).
STRING name (A20).
!DO !#i = 1 !TO 62
COMPUTE counter = #i
!IF (!POS !EQ !i)
!THEN
COMPUTE name = VALUELABEL(!POS)
COMPUTE !CONCAT('wasnot', name) = 1.
!ELSE
COMPUTE name = VALUELABEL(!counter).
COMPUTE !CONCAT('wasnot', name) = 0.
!IFEND
!DOEND
CROSSTABS v15 by !CONCAT('wasnot', name) /cells = column.
!ENDDEFINE.
The idea is, that for every unique value of V601 a flag variable will be created (e.g. "wasnotvaluelabel1"). This variable will either have value = 1 or 0 respectively. However, it seems that concat cannot be used the way I intended. I get these errors:
Error # 6843 in column 7. Text: !POS
The end of a macro expression occurred when an operand was expected.
Execution of this command stops.
Error # 6846 in column 7. Text: !POS
A macro expression includes an undefined macro variable or a macro operator
which is not valid within an expression.
Error # 6836 in column 12. Text: !EQ
In a macro expression, an operator was not preceded by an operand.
Error # 6846 in column 2. Text: !THEN
A macro expression includes an undefined macro variable or a macro operator
which is not valid within an expression.
Error # 6846 in column 28. Text: !POS
A macro expression includes an undefined macro variable or a macro operator
which is not valid within an expression.
Questions I have right now:
Is it even possible to generate dynamic names? I have tried
different attempts over the last hours but the SPSS macro "language"
seems very restricted.
Is there perhaps some other way to achieve this Task? It seems rather unconvenient.
Please note, working with the Python AddIn is sadly not an Option. I'm grateful for any received advice.
There is an extension command, SPSSINC CREATE DUMMIES, that will create all these dummy variables automatically. It's on the Transform menu. And it is implemented in Python.
Using Python you can easily read case data and do lots more.
Thanks for all the Help. In the end I did it with generating new syntax using Outfile.
I don't think SPSS macros can return values, so instead of assigning a value like VIXL3 = !getLastAvail target=VIX level=3 I figured I need to do something like this:
/* computes last available entry of target at given level */
define !compLastAvail(name !Tokens(1) /target !Tokens(1) /level !Tokens(1))
compute tmpid= $casenum.
dataset copy tmpset1.
select if not miss(!target).
compute !name= lag(!target, !level).
match files /file= * /file= tmpset1 /by tmpid.
exec.
delete variables tmpid.
dataset close tmpset1.
!enddefine.
/* compute last values */
!compLastAvail name="VIXCL3" target=VIXC level=3.
The compute !name = ...is where the problem is.
How should this be done properly? The above returns:
>Error # 4285 in column 9. Text: VIXCL3
>Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters, or it is
>not defined by a previous command.
>Execution of this command stops.
When you pass tokens to the macro, they get interpreted literally. So when you specify
!compLastAvail name="VIXCL3"
It gets passed to the corresponding compute statement as "VIXCL3", instead of just a variable name without quotation marks (e.g. VIXCL3).
Two other general pieces of advice;
If you do the command set mprint on before you execute your macro, you will see how your tokens are passed to the macro. In this instance, if you had taken that step, you would have seen that the offending compute statement and error message.
Sometimes you do what to use quotation marks in tokens, and when that is the case the string commands !QUOTE and !UNQUOTE come in handy.