Using SPSS to Understand Research and Data Analysis.

2.7 The SPSS Data and Syntax Editors: Point-and-Click vs. Syntax Code Methods

The Data Editor window allows the researcher to work with SPSS using a method commonly referred to as point-and-click, meaning that you use your computer's mouse to point the cursor at various buttons/icons, and then you select options from drop-down menus by clicking the appropriate options.

This use of SPSS for Windows works just like most other software programs that operate in Windows that you have undoubtedly used many times (e.g., Microsoft Word). It might not surprise you to learn that when you use the point-and-click method in SPSS, you are actually generating a sequence of syntax or command statements that will eventually be used to execute a program (or run the procedure) using the data entered through the Data Editor window.

Although you don’t see them as part of the point-and-click method, as you will learn later, you are able to view these “behind the windows” syntax commands and save them in a Syntax Editor file. These commands are actually fairly intuitive (e.g., we saw earlier that the word, Frequencies, is the syntax command to generate frequencies tables).

Typing these syntax command codes directly into a Syntax Editor window is referred to as the syntax code method. The procedure produces the same analyses as those generated by the point-and-click method (without having to do all the pointing and clicking!). The user just needs to learn the relevant syntax command codes to type them into the Syntax Editor.

The point-and-click method is in some ways is the easiest way to use SPSS for Windows, though it can be tedious to point and click through the many steps in creating a file, modifying the file, selecting the type of analysis to conduct and specifying the various options available at each step of this process.

Further, there are some real advantages of the syntax code method, so to fully tap all of SPSS's capabilities, it's worth learning about SPSS syntax. For example, some procedures are simply not available using the point-and-click method, and can only be performed using the syntax code method. Thus, although we have chosen to introduce the point-and-click method to avoid overwhelming the beginner, the more advanced student is encouraged to learn about the syntax code method as well.

Just remember that which method you are using will determine which SPSS window you will employ:

• Data Editor: User selects options by pointing and clicking on menus/buttons
• Syntax Editor: User selects options by typing in appropriate syntax command codes

From here on, we will present only the point-and-click method in the Data Editor window. For example, in Chapter 3 we will show you how to use the point-and-click method to generate the frequency tables we produced using the syntax code method in the example in the present chapter.