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:

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Answer 1

It's more efficient to do all these frequencies on one data pass, e.g., FREQUENCIES a to c. but Python lets you do looping and lots of other control flow tricks.

begin program.
import spss
for v in ['a','b','c']:
  spss.Submit("FREQUENCIES " + v)
end program.

Using Python requires installing the (free) Python plugin available from SPSS Developer Central, www.spss.com/devcentral.

You can, of course, use macros for this sort of things, but Python is a lot more powerful and easier once you get the hang of it.