Converting SAV and POR Files

The SPSS driver supplied with SuperCHANNEL can read the SPSS query language (.sps), but not the native formats (such as .sav and .por).

Some tools can export directory to .sps, but if this is not the case you will need to convert the data to the SPSS command syntax format before processing with SuperCHANNEL.

One option for converting this to .sps is a third party tool called Stat/Transfer (available from www.stattransfer.com/). There is a trial version of this product available that you can use to test the process (although it should not be used for production use as it will omit records at random).

Correcting the Converted SPS File

Stat Transfer adds some content to the SPS file that the spsscmd driver cannot handle. You must open the file in a text editor and make some manual changes before using it with SuperCHANNEL.

Delete the comments and FILE HANDLE section from the top of the file:

TEXT

/* This SPSS program was automatically generated by Stat/Transfer */
/* The following line should contain the complete path and name of your raw data file */
/* The last line of this file contains the path to your output '.sav' file */
FILE HANDLE DATA / NAME="C:\Documents\SurveyData.dat" LRECL=596

Delete the FORMATS section:

TEXT

FORMATS
  XCOMPUP (F19.16) / WT_PRIM (F19.16) / XNUMWH (F21.16) /
  XTECHSTA (F21.16) / .

Remove any additional blank lines. For example, change:

TEXT

V1 1-10                V2 11                  V3 12

.

VARIABLE LABELS
  V1 'Serial Number'
  V2 'ID number of Primary Sampling Unit'

To:

TEXT

V1 1-10                V2 11                  V3 12
.
VARIABLE LABELS
  V1 'Serial Number'
  V2 'ID number of Primary Sampling Unit'

Delete the section on missing values:

TEXT

 /* User Missing Value Specifications */
 MISSING VALUES
   SERIAL (LOWEST THRU -1)  SCHSER (LOWEST THRU -1)  ICTROL (LOWEST THRU -1)
   NETTYP (LOWEST THRU -1)  NETTYP1 (LOWEST THRU -1)  NETTYP2 (LOWEST THRU -1)