How can I loop through variables in SPSS? I want to avoid code duplication

Question

Is there a \"native\" SPSS way to loop through some variable names? All I want to do is take a list of variables (that I define) and run the same procedure for them:

<

Answer 1

If I understand the question correctly, there may be no need to use a looping construct. SPSS commands with a VARIABLES subcommand like FREQUENCIES allow you to specify multiple variables.

The basic syntax for the FREQUENCIES is:

FREQUENCIES
    VARIABLES= varlist [varlist...] 

where [varlist] is a single variable name, multiple space-delimited variable names, a range of consecutive variables specified with the TO keyword, the keyword ALL, or a combination of the previous options.

For example:

FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=VARA

FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=VARA VARB VARC

FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=VARA TO VARC     

FREQ VAR=ALL

FREQ VAR=VARA TO VARC VARM VARX TO VARZ

See SPSS Statistics 17.0 Command Syntax Reference available at http://support.spss.com/ProductsExt/SPSS/Documentation/SPSSforWindows/index.htm

Note that it's been years since I've actually used SPSS.