Write More Efficient and Elegant Code with SPSS Syntax Techniques
Keith McCormick, Jesus Salcedo · 2017
This chapter discusses how to use SPSS Syntax Techniques to write more efficient and elegant code. The chapter asserts that the SPSS Syntax window is not merely a text editor, but has features specifically designed to help users write Syntax. The use of capitals is not required, but it is conventional to use uppercase for commands in a Syntax editor. The sub-commands allow users to take advantage of the potentially numerous features of the commands. In the Syntax Reference Guide, available in the Help menu, users will find many pages dedicated to some of the more complex commands. Understanding commands, sub-commands, and keywords is very easy if users compare some pasted Syntax to the dialogs. The name of the dialog corresponds, sometimes exactly, with the command. Code that works but ties an organization to something that no one can adapt to current processes can do considerable harm in the long run. Many an SPSS expert has been asked to visit an organization to address a problem like this that has been accumulating over many years. Syntax programs can be solutions to routine problems that can be documented and shared, saving users and their colleagues much time in the process. Effort has been made to minimize the effect, but in the age of electronic books and devices, it would be easy to have an error introduced by changing display column widths or font sizes.