Like Variable Labels, you can get Value Labels on output, along with the actual values. If you’d rather see Male and Female in the data set than 0 and 1, go to View–>Value Labels.Ģ. But by having Value Labels, your data and output still give you the meaningful values.ġ. And it makes data entry much more efficient–you can type in 1 and 0 for Male and Female much faster than you can type out those whole words, or even M and F.

Labeling values right in SPSS means you don’t have to remember if 1=Strongly Agree and 5=Strongly Disagree or vice-versa. Value Labels are similar, but Value Labels are descriptions of the values a variable can take. In the Output tab, choose ‘Names and Labels’ in the first and third boxes. On the output, SPSS allows you to print out Variable Names or Variable Labels or both. In the General tab, choose Display Labels.ģ. In dialog boxes, lists of variables can be shown with either Variable Names or Variable Labels. Mouse over the variable name in the Data View spreadsheet to see the Variable Label.Ģ. The really nice part is SPSS makes Variable Labels easy to use:ġ. It’s just more efficient–you don’t have to look up what those variable names mean when you read your output. When a committee member or reviewer wants you to redo an analysis, it will save tons of time to have those variable labels right there.Ĥ. As entrenched as you are with your data right now, you will forget what those variable names refer to within months. Anyone else who uses your data–lab assistants, graduate students, statisticians–will immediately know what each variable means.ģ. If your paper code sheet ever gets lost, you still have the variable names.Ģ. I know you want to get right to your data analysis, but using Variable Labels will save so much time later.ġ. There are good reasons for using Variable Labels right in the data set. On questionnaires, I often use the actual question. You then use Variable Labels to give a nice, long description of each variable. SPSS doesn’t limit variable names to 8 characters like it used to, but you still can’t use spaces, and it will make coding easier if you keep the variable names short. Using these every time is good data analysis practice. SPSS Variable Labels and Value Labels are two of the great features of its ability to create a code book right in the data set.

Spss code dependent