15.1 DESCRIPTIVES

DESCRIPTIVES
        /VARIABLES=var_list
        /MISSING={VARIABLE,LISTWISE} {INCLUDE,NOINCLUDE}
        /FORMAT={LABELS,NOLABELS} {NOINDEX,INDEX} {LINE,SERIAL}
        /SAVE
        /STATISTICS={ALL,MEAN,SEMEAN,STDDEV,VARIANCE,KURTOSIS,
                     SKEWNESS,RANGE,MINIMUM,MAXIMUM,SUM,DEFAULT,
                     SESKEWNESS,SEKURTOSIS}
        /SORT={NONE,MEAN,SEMEAN,STDDEV,VARIANCE,KURTOSIS,SKEWNESS,
               RANGE,MINIMUM,MAXIMUM,SUM,SESKEWNESS,SEKURTOSIS,NAME}
              {A,D}

The DESCRIPTIVES procedure reads the active dataset and outputs descriptive statistics requested by the user. In addition, it can optionally compute Z-scores.

The VARIABLES subcommand, which is required, specifies the list of variables to be analyzed. Keyword VARIABLES is optional.

All other subcommands are optional:

The MISSING subcommand determines the handling of missing variables. If INCLUDE is set, then user-missing values are included in the calculations. If NOINCLUDE is set, which is the default, user-missing values are excluded. If VARIABLE is set, then missing values are excluded on a variable by variable basis; if LISTWISE is set, then the entire case is excluded whenever any value in that case has a system-missing or, if INCLUDE is set, user-missing value.

The FORMAT subcommand affects the output format. Currently the LABELS/NOLABELS and NOINDEX/INDEX settings are not used. When SERIAL is set, both valid and missing number of cases are listed in the output; when NOSERIAL is set, only valid cases are listed.

The SAVE subcommand causes DESCRIPTIVES to calculate Z scores for all the specified variables. The Z scores are saved to new variables. Variable names are generated by trying first the original variable name with Z prepended and truncated to a maximum of 8 characters, then the names ZSC000 through ZSC999, STDZ00 through STDZ09, ZZZZ00 through ZZZZ09, ZQZQ00 through ZQZQ09, in that sequence. In addition, Z score variable names can be specified explicitly on VARIABLES in the variable list by enclosing them in parentheses after each variable. When Z scores are calculated, PSPP ignores TEMPORARY, treating temporary transformations as permanent.

The STATISTICS subcommand specifies the statistics to be displayed:

ALL

All of the statistics below.

MEAN

Arithmetic mean.

SEMEAN

Standard error of the mean.

STDDEV

Standard deviation.

VARIANCE

Variance.

KURTOSIS

Kurtosis and standard error of the kurtosis.

SKEWNESS

Skewness and standard error of the skewness.

RANGE

Range.

MINIMUM

Minimum value.

MAXIMUM

Maximum value.

SUM

Sum.

DEFAULT

Mean, standard deviation of the mean, minimum, maximum.

SEKURTOSIS

Standard error of the kurtosis.

SESKEWNESS

Standard error of the skewness.

The SORT subcommand specifies how the statistics should be sorted. Most of the possible values should be self-explanatory. NAME causes the statistics to be sorted by name. By default, the statistics are listed in the order that they are specified on the VARIABLES subcommand. The A and D settings request an ascending or descending sort order, respectively.