User Guide

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Chapter 5
E
Enter the values or range of values that represent missing data.
All string values, including null or blank values, are considered to be valid unless
you explici
tly define them as missing. To define null or blank values as missing for
a string variable, enter a single space in one of the fields under the
Discrete missing
values
selection.
Column Width
You can specify a number of characters for the column width. Column widths can
also be changed in the Data view by clicking and dragging the column borders.
Column form
ats affect only the display of values in the Data Editor. Changing
the column width does not change the defined width of a variable. If the defined
and actual width of a value are wider than the column, asterisks (*) are displayed
in the Data
view.
Variable Alignment
Alignmen
t controls the display of data values and/or value labels in the Data view.
The default alignment is right for numeric variables and left for string variables. This
setting affects only the display in the Data view.
Applying Variable Definition Attributes to Multiple Variables
Once you have defined variable definition attributes for a variable, you can copy one
or more attributes and apply them to one or more variables.
Basic copy and paste operations are used to apply variable definition attributes.
You can:
 Copy a s
ingle attribute (for example, value labels) and paste it to the same
attribute cell(s) for one or more variables.
 Copy all the attributes from one variable and paste them to one or more other
variables.
 Create multiple new variables with all the attributes of a copied variable.