Experienced data analysts know that a successful analysis or meaningful report often requires more work in acquiring, merging, and transforming data than in specifying the analysis or report itself. SPSS contains powerful tools for accomplishing and automating these tasks. While much of this capability is available through the graphical user interface, many of the most powerful features are available only through command syntax—and you can make the programming features of its command syntax significantly more powerful by adding the ability to combine it with a full-featured programming language. This book offers many examples of the kinds of things that you can accomplish using SPSS command syntax by itself and in combination with the Python® programming language.

The contents of this book and the accompanying CD are discussed in Chapter 1. In particular, see the section “Using This Book” if you plan to run the examples on the CD. The CD also contains additional command files, macros, and scripts that are mentioned but not discussed in the book and that can be useful for solving specific problems.

This edition has been updated to include numerous enhanced data management features introduced in SPSS 15.0. Many examples will work with earlier versions, but some examples rely on features not available prior to SPSS 15.0. Some of the Python examples require SPSS 15.0.1 or later.