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Key words: spss, programs, spss, program, spss program, spss programs
What's New in SPSS Program 12.0
Enhance your capabilities for graphic presentation and make your job easier. Many requested features and benefits have been added into SPSS Program 12.0 for Windows. For example, over half of
SPSS program users voted to improve the SPSS graphics presentation system in the 2002 Customer Satisfaction Survey.
Experienced and new users alike will appreciate these benefits which include:
- Better reporting capabilities through the all-new presentation graphics system in SPSS Base 12.0 enable you to produce more professional-looking graphs
- Improved data and output management in SPSS Base 12.0 provides you with greater flexibility and more options when managing your data
- New add-on module enables you to more accurately analyze survey data. SPSS Complex Samples 12.0
allows survey, market, health and public opinion researchers as well as social scientists who use sample survey methodology to incorporate their complex sample designs into data analysis
Below, you'll find a summary of new features and benefits available in SPSS 12.0 for Windows.
New features and statistical procedures added in SPSS Base 12.0 for Windows
Graphics and output in SPSS Program
The all-new presentation graphics system in SPSS Base 12.0
provides you with better reporting capabilities. Graph creators will enjoy more control over creation functionality and chart appearance for smoother, easier report building. Decision makers, clients and other report consumers will appreciate the improved appearance and readability of
SPSS-created graphs.
The new graphics system contains all of the chart types available in previous versions of SPSS, but provides you with new features that make it easier for you to
create the graph you want while working in a production setting, and produce more readable graph output. This improved system completely replaces the graphing system used in prior versions (however,
interactive graphs, or IGRAPHS are not affected).
Take a look at New Charting Features in SPSS 12.0 for step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate a variety of
new features into your charts.
- Impress customers and colleagues with the improved chart appearance, including:
- Long string support that ensures you can show longer variable and value labels in their entirety
- Smart text wrapping that ensures longer variable labels wrap at intelligent breaks
- Smart assignment of default tick values for scale axes (e.g., 10, 20, 30, instead of 12.2, 22.2, 32.2)
- Minimal text element collision/overlap
- Save time using templates that provide expanded chart option control so you can set:
- Minimum and maximum scale axis values
- Lines in scatterplots
- 3-D effects for pie and bar charts
- Binning on scatterplots
- Better communicate your findings because you have more control over chart layout, which enables you to:
- Control the placement of chart objects, such as the legend, title, etc.
- Display, align and edit axis labels
- Annotate charts and control the position of annotations and the frames surrounding annotations
- Continue to have the ability to specify scale/axis range; insert interpolation lines, such as linear, step and smoothers in line charts; set line breaks; and use other similar capabilities available
in the previous graphics presentation system
Data and output management in SPSS Program
Data and output management improvements in SPSS 12.0 for Windows provide you with greater flexibility and more options when managing your data. You can now:
- More accurately describe your data using longer variable names - the variable name limit has been expanded from eight bytes to 64 bytes. No more truncating variable names! This also enables you to
work more easily with data from databases or spreadsheets that have longer variable names than allowed in previous versions of SPSS. For example, you can now maintain variables names on data
that you pull from and write back to a Microsoft Excel file saving you time and frustration.
- Prepare continuous-level data for analysis. The new Visual Bander allows you to easily create bands (e.g., breaking income into income "bands" of $10,000 or breaking ages into groups). A
data pass provides you with a histogram that enables you to specify cutpoints in an intelligent manner. You can automatically create value labels from the specified cutpoints (e.g.,
"21-30"). You can then save time by automatically creating value labels based on your cutpoints.
- Easily clean your data when you identify duplicate records through the user interface with the Identify Duplicate Cases tool. You can set parameters and flag duplicates; you can also keep track of
multiple duplicates per record.
- Turn output from SPSS procedures into data with the Output Management System (OMS). OMS provides syntax-driven control over SPSS output. You can:
- Create XML, SPSS SAV, HTML and text output files directly
- Select which types of tables, charts and other objects are included without having to modify existing procedure syntax
- Monitor output file creation from outside SPSS using the OMS log
- Control whether or not objects are shown in the Viewer or Draft Viewer
- Use OMS to:
- Automatically generate selected output as HTML for viewing in a browser.
- Process SPSS XML output using standard XSLT tools to extract information for use in other applications.
- Turn output tables into SPSS data files that SPSS can further process.
- Eliminate selected types of automatically generated output, such as Notes tables from the Viewer, when not needed.
- Generate a table of contents from XML using a supplied XSLT script and free XSLT tools from third parties.
- Implement bootstrapping procedures. An example for REGRESSION is included in the SPSS 12.0 help system.
- And more.
- Prevent the accidental destruction of data by making the dataset read-only. Simply set a global option.
- Harness the full power of the data management capabilities in SPSS with the Programming with SPSS book. This book which is available for purchase separate from SPSS
Base shows you how to manipulate your data in SPSS.
- Make sense and keep track of your data files by adding notes to them using the new Data File Comments command in the user interface. This enables you to save a block of text with your SPSS
data file for easy reference (e.g., indicate that you have cleaned your file).
Data access/export enhancements in SPSS Program
The updated Connect ODBC 4.2 in the included Data Access Pack enables you to:
- Connect to your data on a variety of platforms supported for the first time in SPSS 12.0: IBM AIX 5.2, Sun Solaris 9, Red Hat Linux 8.0, and SuSE Linux 8.1.
- Connect to your data from a variety of sources with new support for Oracle9 R2, IBM DB UDB V8.1 for Windows and UNIX, and IBM DB2 UDB for iSeries V5R2.
- Work with your data from Oracle databases more efficiently than ever before using new Oracle driver enhancements.
- Work with your data from IBM DB2 databases more efficiently than ever before with new DB2 driver enhancements.
- Receive Sybase driver enhancements with support for connecting using information from the Sybase interfaces file.
- Use XML driver enhancements for Full Unicode support and support for the Microsoft XML parser version 4.
Statistics
Improved weighting in Crosstabs allows you to set weights as integers or non-integers. Previously, this functionality was accessible only through syntax.
New features and statistical procedures added to SPSS add-on modules
This new add-on module provides the specialized planning tools and statistics you need when working with sample survey data. Most conventional statistical software assumes
your data arise from simple random sampling. In most large-scale surveys, however, simple random sampling generally is not feasible or cost-effective. Using SPSS
Complex Samples with sample survey data reduces the risk of reaching incorrect or misleading inferences. The new SPSS
Complex Samples add-on module enables you to make more statistically valid inferences for a population by incorporating the sample design into survey analysis. It's an indispensable statistical tool for survey and market researchers, public opinion researchers or social scientists, and enables you to reach more accurate conclusions when working with sample survey methodology.
- With this new add-on module, you can:
- Correctly and easily compute statistics, and their standard errors, for a stratified, clustered or multistage sample.
- Work efficiently and easily using wizards that prompt you for the many factors you need to consider before planning and analysis begins. The wizards walk you through the process of defining and
drawing your sample scheme (if you're creating your own samples) or specifying how samples were drawn and how standard errors should be defined (if you're using public-use datasets). Then, use
the interface to analyze measures of continuous or categorical types, and interpret the results.
- Publish public-use datasets, including your sampling and analysis plans which act as a template and save all the decisions made when drawing the sample. This saves time and increases accuracy for
yourself and others who may want to plug your plans into the data to replicate results or pick up where you left off.
Statistics
The SPSS Complex Samples module includes four new procedures:
- Complex Samples Plan
(CPLAN) for defining a sampling scheme or describing how your sample was drawn. It creates a plan file that can be used by companion procedures in the SPSS Complex Samples add-on module.
- Complex Samples Selection (CSSELECT) for selecting complex, probability-based samples from a population.
- Complex Samples Descriptives
(CSDESCRIPTIVES) for estimating means, sums and ratios, and computing their standard errors, design effects, confidence intervals and hypothesis tests for samples drawn by complex sample methods.
- Complex Samples Tabulate
(CSTABULATE) for displaying one-way frequency tables or two-way crosstabulations, associated standard errors, design effects, confidence intervals and hypothesis tests for samples drawn by complex sample methods. Optionally, you can use CSTABULATE to create tables for subpopulations.
New features and statistical procedures added in SPSS Regression Models
The new stepwise function in the Multinomial Logistic Regression procedure enables you to save time and easily find the best predictors for your data from dozens of possible
predictors.
- Use one of four methods for choosing predictors: forward entry, backward elimination, forward stepwise and backward stepwise.
- Also save time by specifying the reference category in your outcome variable. You no longer need to recode the dependent variable set up in the desired reference category.
New features added in SPSS Server
Enhancements to SPSS Server provide new capabilities and platform possibilities that are attractive to both those working with SPSS
Server and the IT professionals who administer it. These enhancements include:
- Support for Open SSL - information and messages transmitted between SPSS for Windows and SPSS Server can be encrypted when your enterprise "drops" its SSL protocol into the
SPSS client/server framework. System administrators in your IT department can be assured that data used by SPSS Server are secure.
- New 64-bit version of SPSS Server - SPSS
Server will soon be available on 64-bit versions of Windows and Solaris 2.8 and above. This enables you to experience the full power of your 64-bit machines with a 64-bit version of SPSS
Server.
- Return codes for SPSS
Batch Facility (SPSSB) - SPSSB now generates a return code so you or the program itself can check if the job completed and if errors exist. Allowing for SPSSB return codes enables your enterprise to run more efficiently in a production environment.
- Multithreaded ODBC - database access on multiple processors or multiple CPU machines is now faster using Multithreaded ODBC.
New charting features in SPSS 12.0.
View an alphabetical list of statistical procedures in SPSS 12.0 for Windows.
See the products available to use with SPSS 12.0 for end-to-end analysis.
Download the SPSS 12.0 spec sheet brochure (PDF file - zipped)) for more information about SPSS Base
and its capabilities for data access.
Back to SPSS Base page.
Back to SPSS program main page.
Key words: spss, programs, spss, program, spss program, spss programs
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