SPSS for Windows

Transcription

1 SPSS for Windows Installation Instructions for installing SPSS 15 for Windows, including the minimum hardware and software requirements, are located on the CD-ROM in the Installation Documents directory. Information and Limitations New features. For a list of new features in the latest SPSS for Windows release, please visit For a list of new features in SPSS, see the What's New in SPSS 15.0? topic in the online help or the cover letter that was included with your system. Reading new files in older versions. Because of changes to the format of the SPSS document (*.spo) file, output documents created in SPSS 15 may not be readable by earlier versions of SPSS. Specifying substitution fonts when converting TrueType to PostScript in EPS exports. When exporting Maps, Trees, or Interactive Charts from the SPSS Viewer to Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), one may choose an option to convert TrueType fonts to PostScript fonts. Although the default behavior of this option is to match up a TrueType font with a PostScript font family for conversion, one can explicitly specify a substitution PostScript font in the IEx_Font.ini configuration file located in the SPSS installation directory (directions and samples included). This feature may prove useful for users of multi-byte text who require conversion to a specific PostScript font. Saving Stata and SAS files with multi-byte variable names. When saving data files in Stata or SAS format, SPSS variable names that contain multibyte characters (e.g., Japanese or Chinese characters) are converted to variables names of the general form Vnnn, where nnn is an integer value. an integer value. Dialog box layout problem. If some dialogs in the Chart Editor appear distorted and/or contain poorly aligned text, this may be caused by the presence of the Adobe Symbol font. To resolve this issue: 1. Shut down SPSS. 2. Remove SY.PFM and SY.PFB from Fonts in the Windows Control Panel.

2 Do not try to remove this font while SPSS is running. You may also need to install the TrueType Symbol font, symbol.ttf. Note that this problem can also occur in Tree Editor and Adaptor for Predictive Enterprise Services Options. Enhanced Metafiles (EMF) cropped in Internet Explorer. SPSS Viewer objects exported as EMFs are cropped when viewed using Internet Explorer. Netscape cannot read the EMF format. SPSS doesn t work with Altiris Vision User Module 3.1. There is a memory conflict with Microsoft DirectDraw and SPSS when Altiris Vision is installed using the Run before logon option. In order to resolve this problem you must not install Altiris Vision with this option - use "Add to startup menu" or "Run manually" instead. You must uninstall and re-install Altiris Vision if you already have an installation using Run before logon and are experiencing problems. Programmability changes. Some definitions of the APIs have changed from 15.0 to They are listed below. Change to structure of result from spss.getvarmissingvalues function. For more information, please refer to the Programmability documentation topic "spss.getvarmissingvalues". Change to behavior of Get functions (such as GetVariableCount) from spss module while a cursor is open. For more information, please refer to the note following the section "spss.cursor Methods" in the Programmability Documentation. Known Problems Graphics Uninstalling Smart Viewer. If you have SPSS for Windows and SmartViewer installed on the same computer, uninstalling SmartViewer may cause SPSS for Windows to stop displaying graphics. You can correct the problem by repairing your SPSS for Windows installation. In the Windows Add/Remove programs, locate SPSS 15 for Windows, press Change, and follow the prompts to repair the system. Using percentage as the statistic in charts created with the Chart Builder dialog or GPL syntax. There are several choices for the base count for calculating these percentages. If you choose the base to be the total for each legend category, the base is actually the grand total.

3 IGRAPH does not honor the USE command. This could lead to misinterpreted results. Data Access and Data Editor Reading OLE DB and Dimensions data sources. OLE DB and Dimensions data sources are only available on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. You cannot install the Dimensions Data Model and OLE DB Data Access on non-supported platforms. OLE DB data sources are not available in the Database Wizard, Read Dimension Data (on the File menu) is not available, and GET DATA TYPE=OLEDB will generate an error on non-supported operating systems. Reading Oracle OLE DB Data Sources. When using GET DATA /TYPE=OLEDB to read Oracle data sources, SQL statements should not include owner information. For example: SELECT * FROM "ownername"."tablename" will only read the field names and will not include any data. To read the table correctly, omit the owner information, as in: SELECT * FROM "tablename". SPSS Connect ODBC drivers for SQL Server. The SPSS Connect ODBC driver to use depends on the version of SQL Server at your site. Use the SPSS OEM 5.0 SQL Server Wire Protocol driver for SQL Server versions 7.x and Note that you can use the Microsoft SQL Server driver for SQL Server versions 6.x and higher. The SPSS OEM 5.2 DB2 Wire Protocol ODBC driver provided in the SPSS Data Access Pack is not compatible with DB When updated drivers are available, you can download them from Oracle and SequeLink Server. If you are using the SequeLink Server at your site, it might not work correctly with Oracle 8. Use Connect ODBC instead. Connect ODBC is included in the SPSS Data Access Pack. Using data files saved in SAS formats in SAS JMP and the SAS Viewer. Data files saved in various SAS formats from SPSS should work in SAS. There are known problems using SAS files saved in SPSS with the SAS Viewer and SAS JMP 5 - these applications have a different mechanism for reading files which isn t the same or as stable as the one used in SAS. Filename limitations for data files saved in SAS formats. The

4 following excerpt is from the SAS JMP 5 README: Double-byte characters should not be used in filenames when writing SAS files [from within JMP]. This is a limitation of the SAS local data provider that is to be corrected in version 9 of SAS. This holds true for SAS files saved in SPSS. SAS formats and string length limitations. If you use SPSS to open SAS data file types, you may not be able to get string values longer than 255 bytes. If your data contain values longer than 255 bytes, SPSS will get only the first 255 bytes. Using data sets with a large number of cases in the Data Editor. When data are read in to SPSS, memory is allocated in the Data Editor to accommodate all of the cases. If a very large data file (millions of cases) is opened (even when connected to an SPSS Server) it is possible that the computer running SPSS for Windows will run out of virtual memory. The number of cases that can be held in memory by the Data Editor can be limited by a special setting. The threshold setting does not affect the ability to carry out any operations in SPSS for Windows, but it may affect performance with large datasets. This threshold can be set by using the virtualr.exe utility, which is located in the SPSS installation directory. The default setting is 100,000 cases. If a Data Editor-specific operation is used to pass the threshold, such as scrolling to the end of a large file, memory for all of the cases will be allocated. You should not change the default unless you have memory exhaustion problems. In that case, set a smaller value using VirtualR. Text Wizard data caching. The Text Wizard provides an optional setting that automatically caches the data that it imports. By default caching is on and the wizard creates a copy of the entire dataset. If you turn caching off, SPSS does not have access to the entire data file -- the original data source is re-read as needed -- and the total number of cases is unknown. When the total number of cases is unknown, Go to Case, Copy, and Paste do not work as expected in the Data Editor. You can correct the problem by using the File menu to Cache Data. Using syntax to read data with ODBC. If you use syntax to read data from a database with ODBC, we recommend caching your data. Caching your data ensures that the data are in the same order each time that SPSS needs to make a data pass. It also ensures that your analysis isn't affected by updates to the database that occur while the syntax is being processed. To cache the data, add a CACHE command to the syntax immediately after your GET DATA command. SQL Server ODBC Driver. If you are using the SPSS OEM 5.2 SQL

5 Server Wire Protocol, you should modify the driver setup to ensure proper handling of quoted field and table names in SQL statements generated by the Database Wizard and Export to Database Wizard or specified in the GET DATA and SAVE TRANSLATE commands. In the Advanced tab of the driver setup, select (check) "Enable Quoted Identifiers". In local analysis mode, you can modify the driver setup using the Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator, which you can access from within SPSS via the "Add ODBC data source" button in the Database Wizard or Export to Database Wizard. For database access in distributed analysis mode (using SPSS Server), contact your database administrator. Procedures Multiple response sets. Although the Original Tables module allows one to create multiple response sets which are used in the TABLES procedure, these sets can only be persisted in a system file from an SPSS for Windows dialog. The new Custom Tables module has a new dialog which makes use of a new syntax command (MRSETS) for creating multiple response sets. Although the new mechanism offers some improved functionality, there may be problems using a new multiple response set with the old Original Tables module. The Original Tables module only works with multiple response sets with names up to seven bytes in length (not including the preceding dollar sign). The new Define Multiple Response Sets dialog and the new Custom Tables module is capable of defining and using multiple response sets that have names that exceed seven bytes in length. Linear Mixed Models. In the Random dialog box if the Include Intercept checkbox is checked but no factors or covariates are specified as random effects, the Next button will not become available. Therefore, in order to generate a RANDOM subcommand with no effect(s) other than an intercept, that subcommand must be the last one specified in the Random dialog box. If there are multiple subcommands specified, the last of which contains only the intercept, that specification will not be generated unless Continue is clicked while remaining at that last specification, unless that specification also includes a subject combination Other Customers who have licensed the PES Adaptor and are upgrading from SPSS 14 may have problems storing and retrieving Complex Samples plan files. If problems occur you should redefine MIME-type

6 mappings for Complex Samples plan files. Open the Predictive Enterprise Administrator ( server>/config/mimemanager) and delete any existing definitions for.csplan and.csaplan files. Then redefine the mappings for the two file types using a single dash (-) instead of a double dash (--) in the MIME type definition. Exporting pivot tables to Word. If when you export pivot table output to Word, you see blank cells and the table doesn't align properly, possibly you have hidden rows or columns in the table. You can correct the problem by showing all cells and exporting the pivot table again. Exporting Correlation tables to Word. Sometimes when you export a Correlation pivot table to Word, the column headers are not in the correct location. You can correct the problem by changing the table properties in SPSS. Follow these steps: -- Close the Exported Word document -- In SPSS Viewer, activate the Correlation Pivot Table -- From the Format, menu select Table Properties -- Click the General Tab -- Change the Row Dimension Labels to Nested and click OK -- Export the table to Word again If you experience this problem frequently, you can create and apply a Table Look that uses Nested Row Dimension Labels. See the online help for more information about Table Looks. C:\ \LOCALS~1\Temp\spss####xxx.tmp contains an invalid path. This message can occur when you start SPSS immediately after installing, change the Temporary Directory setting on Edit Options, and then run a procedure. If you see the message, close SPSS and restart it. The Temporary Directory will work correctly after you restart. Citrix and Sax BASIC error. When you run SPSS as a published Citrix application, you may encounter a Sax BASIC error when you attempt to run a procedure. The problem can be corrected by editing the location of the global procedures file on the SPSS Options Scripts tab. SPSS Maps Option Maps does not use the FILTER, WEIGHT, or USE commands. This could lead to misinterpreted results. Limited number of ranges in Range of Values map. If you save an output file that contains a Range of Values map that has more

7 than five ranges defined, you will not be able to reopen that file. Therefore the limit on the number of ranges in the Create Range of Values Map dialog has been set to five. You can create a Range of Values map with more ranges using syntax or by editing the map, and you can copy that map as a metafile into another application such as a word processor; but if you save the SPSS output file containing such a map, you will be unable to open the file at all. The problem is in third-party software. SPSS Inc. has not yet been able to obtain a fix from the software vendor, but will distribute a patch as soon as the fix becomes available. Range of Values map causes application error with Natural Break and no data. If your data specification results in no data records for mapping, the Natural Break formula for determining ranges fails with an application error. This most commonly happens if your choice of a geoset or layer within a geoset does not correspond to your data. A mismatch table should be produced to indicate this problem, but the application error prevents it from being shown. Copy Objects unavailable with maps. Maps are copied to other software as metafiles. Copy Objects will not work correctly. A side effect of this is that you must copy and paste maps one at a time. Bar chart and pie chart map theme size not restored. Changes you make to the size of bar charts and pie charts in editing maps are not retained when the map is saved and restored. Variable to refine geographic match can cause SPSS to hang. If you use both a geographic variable and a variable to refine the match, the resulting data table can exceed the capabilities of Maps and cause SPSS to hang. Most significantly, with United States data, if you use County and State as your geographic and refining variables and have data for more than a few states, you will experience this problem. If you are using the various county-level data files distributed with SPSS Maps, you can avoid this problem by specifying the 5-digit FIPS codes as your geographic variable and no refining variable. FIPS codes identify counties uniquely. For data containing state and county variables but not FIPS codes, a solution to add FIPS codes to the data will be available on the SPSS web site. Maps require updated system resources. If it has been a while since you added Microsoft products to your system, you may have outdated system resource files. Installing Internet Explorer 6 will update those files.