Saving a Data File in SPSS

It is very important to save data file when you are working with SPSS. SPSS will not save it for you.

Then, you must do it manually and frequently enough in case thing goes wrong, such as a sudden blackout. How to do it?

Go to the File menu (top left hand corner) and choose Save.

You can also just click on the icon that looks like a floppy disk which appears on the toolbar at the top, left of your screen. Or you can use shortcut by pressing Ctrl + s on your keyboard.

If you are working with a new data and has not been saved, SPSS will ask you to specify a name for the file and to indicate a directory and a folder that it will be stored in. Choose the directory and then type in a file name. SPSS will automatically provide all data file names the extension .sav

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Opening an Existing Data File in SPSS

When you open SPSS Program, it displays SPSS Opening Screen.

From the this screen, SPSS asks whether you want to Run the tutorial, Type in data, Run an existing query, Create new query using Database Wizard or Open an existing data source.

At the moment, we want to talk about how to open an existing data file. If you want to open an existing data file (e.g. one of the files accompanied SPSS tutorials), click on the Opening an existing data source button from the opening screen, then on More Files.

This will take you to search through the various directories on your computer to find where your data file is located. Find the file you want to use and double click on it or click on Open from your Menu. The data file will open in front of you with the Data Editor label.

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