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5 High quality tables in SPSS
Using syntax:
The basic syntax command needs to be added to by specifying a new ‘temporary’
variable that groups the multiple-response items together. (The variable is temporary
in the sense that it is not available to SPSS procedures other than the tables
command which defines it.) The temporary variable is defined by using the mrgroup
subcommand. This variable is then tabulated in the normal way using the standard
syntax outlined in Example 1.
There are three elements to the mrgroup subcommand: a user-defined name for the
temporary variable (here ‘byourj’), a user-defined label for the temporary variable
(here ‘Work responsibilities of respondent and their subordinates’) and a list of the
variables containing the multiple-response items (here BYOURJ01 to BYOURJ09).
Example 5:
tables
/format blank missing('.')
/ftotal base1 'Base' total1 'All w/places'
/autolabel=on
/missing=include
/base=qualified
/mrgroup=byourj 'Work responsibilities of respondent
and their subordinates' byourj01 to byourj09
/table (byourj + base1) by (nempsize + total1)
/statistics cpct(byourj(f3) '':nempsize)
count(base1 'Weighted') u count(base1 'Unweighted') .
The output from Example 5 (contained in Appendix E) shows that 79 per cent of
respondents in small workplaces (10 to 24 employees) reported that pay and
conditions formed part of their own work responsibilities, or the work responsibilities
of their subordinates.
Using the menu system:
1. Follow steps 1 and 2 outlined in Section 5.3
2. When the ‘General Tables’ dialog box appears, click on the button labelled
‘Multiple Reponse Sets…’ in the bottom left hand corner of the window.
3. From the list of variables headed ‘Set Definition’, select the 9 variables
BYOURJ01 to BYOURJ09 and use the arrow button to transfer them into the list
headed ‘Variables in Set:’.
4. Under the heading ‘Variables Are Coded As’, check the button labelled
‘Categories’ (as opposed to ‘Dichotomies’).
5. Give the multiple response variable a Name (e.g. BYOURJ) and a Label (e.g.
‘Work responsibilities of respondent and their subordinates’).
6. Ensure that the ‘Denominator for Multiple-Response Percentages’ is selected as
‘Number of cases’ (as opposed to ‘Number of responses’).
7. Click on the ‘Add’ button, followed by the ‘Save’ button. The temporary multipleresponse variable, labelled $byourj should now appear in the list at the bottom
left-hand corner of the General Tables window.
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