Re: Selecting cases using the "IF" Function

[Alan Mead]

As Dr. Water says, syntax is a solution.  The steps would be to (1) paste the desired analysis and then (2) edit the syntax to insert the "IF" statement above it.

You also need to decide if you want to "permanently" delete the non-selected cases or not.  If I have a long series of analyses, I might select cases (say valid cases) and save them (or use a filter).  But Hollenbach describes analyzing subsets of the dataset and in that case I often find the temporary command to be helpful.  The syntax for each analysis would look like this:

temporary.
select if( region = 1 or (region=1 and id=3)).
freq ...

You would highlight all three statements and run them.  The "temporary" command causes the selection to be in effect only for the next analysis. You repeat the "temporary" and "select if" for each analysis (or, again, use a filter).

BTW, I honestly think just typing the syntax of the "select if" is easier than using the GUI.

-Alan

On 1/18/2017 9:53 AM, Aj Hollenbach wrote:

Hi PSPP Users,

I am transitioning from SPSS to PSPP and am having some troubles with case selection. Specifically, under SPSS, I used to be able to select cases using a radio button in the Data / Select Cases dialogue box that stated "Select if condition is satisfied...". However, under PSPP, I have found that this option is not available, and that you can only select cases based upon (1) a random sample, (2) case range, or (3) a filter variable. In other words, there is no option for using the IF function for selection purposes. I am attaching screenshots from both programs.

I greatly appreciate any advice that others might have on how to best make a selection of cases using a conditional IF statement. In short, I am running analysis of household survey data, but only want to use data from a handful of the administrative jurisdictions (provinces) within the larger data set.

Regards,

Allen

PS: I am running GNU pspp 0.10.1-g1082b8

-- 

Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
President, Talent Algorithms Inc.

science + technology = better workers

http://www.alanmead.org