Edit Variable dialog box
You use the Edit Variable dialog box to specify how a variable is to be shown by default in your tables. The top part of the dialog box shows the variable's name (which you can't change) and its description, which you can change. The description is the variable's label or the text of the question on which it is based. Any changes you make to the description will be applied to any existing tables that include the variable next time you populate them.
If the variable is boolean, categorical, date, numeric, or text, two or three tabs appear below the description, depending on the variable's data type. The information on these tabs defines the variable's axis expression (see
Axis expressions), which controls how the variable will appear in a table. For loops and grids these tabs are not available and you can edit only the description.
To open the Edit Variable dialog box
1 Select the Define tab.
2 In the Variable List, select the variable you want to change.
3 From the menu, choose Variables > Edit.
Edit tab
This is the first tab and is available for all variable types. This tab lists the items that will appear when the variable is included on the side or top of a table and makes it easy to add, change, and reorder the items.
Banding tab
This is available for numeric variables only and makes it easy to group the numeric values into categories.
Script tab
This is available for all variable types and shows the axis expression in the form of a script. Advanced users can optionally define the axis expression on this tab.
Notes
▪The axis expression defines how the variable is to appear in a table. The axis expression is not shown in the ToolTips in the Variable List and is not available for defining filter conditions. For example, suppose you use the Banding tab to categorize the values in a numeric variable into two bands called
High and
Low. When you subsequently create a filter based on this numeric variable, the
High and
Low bands will not appear in the Filter dialog box and you will not be able to specify them in an advanced expression. See
Defining the conditions for more information.
▪Generally any changes you make in the Edit Variable dialog box will affect all tables that include the variable, although the changes will not be visible in existing tables until you repopulate them. However, changes will not affect any tables where you have used the Edit Axis dialog box (see
Edit Axis dialog box) to define how the variable is to appear in those specific tables.
See also