To follow along with this tutorial, you can download the data set that has been made available through the "About this Tutorial" tab, or upload your own dataset to SPSS.

SPSS can import data from a CSV, Excel, or any other text based file using the  "File"->"Import Data." option. This will open a pop-up dialogue which allows the user to select the file to upload. Once the file has been selected, you can either have SPSS read the file or select "Advanced Options (Text Wizard)" to manually input the data from the file.

The Text Wizard import process consists of six steps that can be cycled through using the "Back" and "Next" buttons at the bottom of the wizard.  

Step 1:

SPSS allows the user to save the settings used to import files, and so this step is asking whether settings for this file have already been saved of this computer.

Step 2:

In the second step, choose whether your variables are delimited by a specific character or aligned in fixed width columns. Check "yes" if variable names are included at the top of your file and specify which line contains the variable names. Columns in SPSS are frequently referred to as variables. Then, set whether the decimal symbol in your file is marked by a period or a comma.

Step 3:

This step controls which parts of the file will be pulled into SPSS. Set at which line the first case of data begins, then select whether each line represents a separate case or if there are a specific number of variables that represent a case. The Text Wizard will also ask if you want to import all cases, a set number, or a random percentage. 

Step 4:

Select which delimiters appear between variables. "Delimiters" are the characters that separate each data value. Select the text qualifier, which is the character used to distinguish a single value in the data set. (This resolves any ambiguity arising form values that contain commas). You can also choose to remove leading spaces or trailing spaces from string values.

Step 5:

Step 5 allows changes to be made to any of the variable data. You won't need to make any changes for the dataset included in this tutorial, but in many instances data sets will not have pre-imported variable names, or SPSS may not automatically recognize the correct "Data format." The SPSS Data format of a variable controls what type of value it contains: numbers are numeric and characters are strings. Other types are also possible, like "Date," "Dollar," and "Scientific notation."

Step 6:

The final step allows the user to save the import configuration by checking "Yes" under "Would you like to save this file format for future use?" The "Would you like to paste the Syntax?" option will print the command syntax to the output viewer.