Edit Variable dialog

You use the Edit Variable dialog to specify how a variable is to be shown by default in your tables. The top part of the dialog 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.

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.

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.

▪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 and you will not be able to specify them in an advanced expression. For more information, see Defining the conditions.

▪Generally any changes you make in the Edit Variable dialog 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 (see Edit Axis dialog) to define how the variable is to appear in those specific tables.