- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
Block 1: From questionnaire to SPSS saved file
[Page last updated 22 March 2020]
All tutorials and exercises on this page are now in pdf format and will display more or less immediately. All raw data, SPSS saved files and key syntax files can be found on data sets and documents, but you'll learn a lot more if you do all the exercises yourself instead of copying them.
[NB Sections 1.1 to 1.4 below were mostly written in 2010 using PASW 18: 1.2.1b, 1.1.2b and section 1.5 were written using SPSS 21. The screenshots are different, but the logic and syntax are the same for all tutorials and exercises. From 20 Sep 2013 I used SPSS 22 and from September 2017 SPSS 24.]
1.1: The language of survey analysis (updated March 2020)
1.1.1 Pre-course questionnaire on interests and skills
(Print up and complete, with up to 9 of your fellow students and/or colleagues)
1.1.2 Introduction to survey data
(Essential reading)
1.1.3 Introduction to the use of computers in survey analysis
(Highly recommended reading)
1.2: How do data relate to questionnaires?
1.2.1 Data transfer sheet
(Print up, then write in the coded data from your completed questionnaire(s))
1.2.2 Preliminary data exercise
(Type data from your transfer sheet into a *.txt file and save it)
1.2.3 First look at real data from a major survey
(British Social Attitudes 1986)
1.2.4 Second look at data from a major survey
(British Social Attitudes 1989)
These days, few users are familiar with ASCII files (the card-image format of many older survey data sets) but they are familiar with spreadsheets.. For the early part of the course I am therefore working on tutorials and exercises using Excel spreadsheets as an alternative to ASCII files for raw data.input to SPSS. from the pre-course questionnaire. The following (draft only) tutorials replicate exercises 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 above, and contain hyperlinks to sample Excel files on the data sets and documents page.
1.2.1b Data transfer sheet (Excel)
(Print up, then write in the coded data from your completed questionnaire(s))
1.2.2 Preliminary (Excel) data transfer exercise
(Type data from your transfer sheet into a *.xls file and save it)
1.3: Reading raw data into SPSS
1.3.1 Conventions for Naming Variables in SPSS
1.3.2 Cumulative data from pre-course questionnaire [txt file containing raw data]
1.3.3.1 Preparing the ground
1.3.3.2 Introduction to SPSS syntax
1.3.3.3.First shot at writing SPSS syntax
1.3.3.4 First shot at running SPSS
1.3.3.5 Checking your data
1.3.3.6 SPSS for real - my first saved file [Tutorial]
1.3.3.7 SPSS for real - my first saved file [Exercise]
1.3.3.8 Checking your data (again)
1.3.3.9 Some general advice on file building in SPSS
1.4: Completing your data dictionary
1.4.1 Labelling your variables in SPSS
1.4.2 Labelling your values in SPSS
1.4.3 Missing values - a note
1.5: Utilities
1.5.1 Tutorial: Checking SPSS (saved) data files (Draft only: May 2013)
1.5.2 Exercise: Checking SPSS (saved) data files (Draft only: May 2013)
See also the booklet by Svend Juul et al Take good care of your data (Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Aarhus. November 2004) which covers the same ground as 1.1.3 and 1.1.3.9 above, but in much more detail. It describes SPSS and Stata procedures in parallel for the same operations, but uses SPSS 11 and has not been updated to cover later versions as the Dept stopped using SPSS and switched to Stata. However, because it is oriented towards basic data management practices, most of the SPSS content is still valid. With the author's permission I am preparing a separate commentary on it, replicating some of the procedures on different data and including screenshots from SPSS for Windows (24).
Forward to Block 2: Analysing one variable
All tutorials and exercises on this page are now in pdf format and will display more or less immediately. All raw data, SPSS saved files and key syntax files can be found on data sets and documents, but you'll learn a lot more if you do all the exercises yourself instead of copying them.
[NB Sections 1.1 to 1.4 below were mostly written in 2010 using PASW 18: 1.2.1b, 1.1.2b and section 1.5 were written using SPSS 21. The screenshots are different, but the logic and syntax are the same for all tutorials and exercises. From 20 Sep 2013 I used SPSS 22 and from September 2017 SPSS 24.]
1.1: The language of survey analysis (updated March 2020)
1.1.1 Pre-course questionnaire on interests and skills
(Print up and complete, with up to 9 of your fellow students and/or colleagues)
1.1.2 Introduction to survey data
(Essential reading)
1.1.3 Introduction to the use of computers in survey analysis
(Highly recommended reading)
1.2: How do data relate to questionnaires?
1.2.1 Data transfer sheet
(Print up, then write in the coded data from your completed questionnaire(s))
1.2.2 Preliminary data exercise
(Type data from your transfer sheet into a *.txt file and save it)
1.2.3 First look at real data from a major survey
(British Social Attitudes 1986)
1.2.4 Second look at data from a major survey
(British Social Attitudes 1989)
These days, few users are familiar with ASCII files (the card-image format of many older survey data sets) but they are familiar with spreadsheets.. For the early part of the course I am therefore working on tutorials and exercises using Excel spreadsheets as an alternative to ASCII files for raw data.input to SPSS. from the pre-course questionnaire. The following (draft only) tutorials replicate exercises 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 above, and contain hyperlinks to sample Excel files on the data sets and documents page.
1.2.1b Data transfer sheet (Excel)
(Print up, then write in the coded data from your completed questionnaire(s))
1.2.2 Preliminary (Excel) data transfer exercise
(Type data from your transfer sheet into a *.xls file and save it)
1.3: Reading raw data into SPSS
1.3.1 Conventions for Naming Variables in SPSS
1.3.2 Cumulative data from pre-course questionnaire [txt file containing raw data]
1.3.3.1 Preparing the ground
1.3.3.2 Introduction to SPSS syntax
1.3.3.3.First shot at writing SPSS syntax
1.3.3.4 First shot at running SPSS
1.3.3.5 Checking your data
1.3.3.6 SPSS for real - my first saved file [Tutorial]
1.3.3.7 SPSS for real - my first saved file [Exercise]
1.3.3.8 Checking your data (again)
1.3.3.9 Some general advice on file building in SPSS
1.4: Completing your data dictionary
1.4.1 Labelling your variables in SPSS
1.4.2 Labelling your values in SPSS
1.4.3 Missing values - a note
1.5: Utilities
1.5.1 Tutorial: Checking SPSS (saved) data files (Draft only: May 2013)
1.5.2 Exercise: Checking SPSS (saved) data files (Draft only: May 2013)
See also the booklet by Svend Juul et al Take good care of your data (Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Aarhus. November 2004) which covers the same ground as 1.1.3 and 1.1.3.9 above, but in much more detail. It describes SPSS and Stata procedures in parallel for the same operations, but uses SPSS 11 and has not been updated to cover later versions as the Dept stopped using SPSS and switched to Stata. However, because it is oriented towards basic data management practices, most of the SPSS content is still valid. With the author's permission I am preparing a separate commentary on it, replicating some of the procedures on different data and including screenshots from SPSS for Windows (24).
Forward to Block 2: Analysing one variable