Data file
The data file which nqtspss creates is not directly related to the original Quantum data file. In that file, the answers to any one question are always found in the same location in each record (for example, always in column 15 of card 1). In addition, the codes in the data correspond to the codes on the questionnaire.
The records in an SPSS data set are lists of values separated by spaces. A record always contains one value for every variable in the DATA LIST, in the order the variables are given in that list. However, because some values may contain more digits than others, the values for a given variable will not always appear in exactly the same place in the record.
Example
Here is a sample data set:
1 0 1 5 8 4 7 4 123.45 9 5 4
6 4 4 6 12 3 5 6 99.01 4 0 0
-99.99 0 5 7 9 5 3 87 16.12 11 10 6
The values which a variable has are assigned by nqtspss according to the position of the corresponding element in the Quantum axis. Thus, the first element is assigned value 1, while the fifth element is assigned value 5, even if these are not the codes in the original data file. Further information on the values you can expect to see is given below.
See also