Data Entry in SPSS

It is very easy to start SPSS from the start menu by just clicking on the “SPSS” icon. As soon as SPSS opens, a window will appear, which is called the “data viewer window.” In SPSS, data viewer column value is known as the record measure or the variable and row to identify the case (or subject). If the data size is small, then the data entry in SPSS can be done manually in the data viewer window. Whenever a data size is large, then the data entry in SPSS is not possible manually. There are a number of options to do data entry in SPSS. Most of the data is available in Excel, CSV (comma separated value), and text. It is also available in other software formats like SAS, STATA etc.

Reading data using import wizard: Whenever data is outside the SPSS or in any other format, then by using the import wizard we can import data in SPSS.  To use the import wizard, we have to click on the “open data” option available on the SPSS file menu, then click the “data” option.  The window that appears after clicking the open data option is called the open data wizard.  This window will show the location where the data is located.  For example, if our data is in the D drive, then we have to click on the “my computer” icon and then find the “D drive,” and click on it to access our data, where we will select the folder in which data is available.  As we select the data folder, the name of the data folder will appear below the file name option.  If data is not in SPSS file format, then the file will not appear there. Thus, from the “file type” option, we will select the format of the data available over there for the specific file format.  Then the file will appear in the desired format (over here it is the SPSS format). Then we can select that file and click on the “ok” button. Now data will appear in the data view window. This is an easy way to do data entry in SPSS when data is large.  If data is in Excel format and it is in medium size, then by using the copy and paste option (available in SPSS) we can do data entry in SPSS. But just doing the data entry in SPSS is not sufficient for analysis.