Topic 2: E – Categorize a Quantitative Variable

Video (4:30)

The following video illustrates the EXTREMELY important skill of translating coded categorical variables in SPSS using the Values column in the Variable View. The following files are associated with this video.

• All Available Transcripts – SPSS Tutorials

• DATASET USED:
  • PULSE_STEP4.SAV
    

• SPSS DATASET CREATED:
  • PULSE_STEP5.SAV

• Menus and Steps Used:
  • Double-click on the SPSS dataset (STEP4) to open SPSS with that data loaded
  • Go to the TRANSFORM – VISUAL BINNING
    • Bring in the variable to be categorized into the VARIABLES TO BIN area
    • Enter the name of the new variable in the BINNED VARIABLE NAME box and the label in the next box
    • Either type in the upper limit of each desired interval or using the MAKE CUTPOINTS tool
    • Either type in the translations for each level created or use the MAKE LABELS tool
    • Click OK and OK again when finished
    • Check the results by viewing the data and creating frequency tables for each created variable
  • Save changes to your SPSS dataset using File – Save or by closing SPSS and following the prompts. We save the result as STEP5

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This document is linked from our main SPSS page under Software.