I watched a couple of video tutorials for extracting the files and saving them to my computer and sending the location to the syntax to open in SPSS. I still can’t open the file in SPSS and I have tried the Dat and the other format. Nothing seems to be working. Can you please help me…
I just checked into your account and was able to load your most recent data extract (#5) into SPSS. A couple details may be helpful. First, make sure that you are properly decompressing the compressed .dat file. We typically recommend 7zipfor this task. Second, make sure that you are correctly specifying the location where your data file is located on your computer in the SPSS syntax file. Finally, after completing all of these steps, the data should show up in a new SPSS window. If you continue to have difficulty with this, feel free to email us directly at ipums@umn.edu.
Good day Jeff. I downloaded my dataset. However, while trying to open in SPSS I get the following error codes on the syntax output and the file won’t open.
I need help, please. Thank you.
Line 7 data list File not found.
Line 86 variable labels This command is not permitted before the beginning of file definition commands.
Line 165 value labels This command is not permitted before the beginning of file definition commands.
Line 2827 execute This command is not valid before a working file has been defined.
I suspect the issue is that you need to update your command file (.sps) to reflect your working directory where the data file is stored. You’ll want to edit line 5 of the idhs .sps syntax file to show the location of your working directory and only then run the entire file. You’ll also want to ensure that you have correctly unzipped the data file. We recommend using 7-Zip for windows users.
You can also generate a data file that can be opened directly in SPSS without the use of command files. To do this, you will need to change the data format from the extract request page (screen shots below).
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