I received my IPUMS CPS extract but cannot move it into SPSS. Is theresomeone I can call who can guide me?
IPUMS-CPS provides an excellent tutorial video series including a video that walks through the process of opening a data extract in SPSS step-by-step. There is also a basic set of instructions if you prefer text based instruction.
I hope this helps.
Your answer does not help. I already tried the instructions and cannot make them work.
To insure that there was no error in the creation of your data extract, I downloaded it myself and was able to open the file in SPSS. Here are the steps I followed:
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From your Download and Revise Extracts page, download the SPSS syntax file by right-clicking on the link and selecting “Save Target As…” (if you are using Chrome as you web browser you would select “Save Link As…”) and saving the file to a specific directory (I saved the file in a folder on my desktop).
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Download the Data file to the same folder you saved your SPSS syntax file. The data file will be named cps_00001.dat.gz
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Use a program like 7-zip to unzip the file (if you are using a Mac you can simply double-click the zipped file).
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Open SPSS and select File -> Open -> Syntax and navigate to your SPSS syntax file (called cps_00001.sps)
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Edit the line near the top of the Syntax file that reads: cd “.”. replacing the “.” with the path to your data file. You can find the path to your data file by right clicking on the data file and selecting Properties, there should be a field called Location: which gives the path to your data file. Since I save my file in a New Folder on my Desktop the cd line reads cd “C:\Users\Joe_Grover\Desktop\New folder”. (if you are using a Mac this will look something “/Users/Joe_Grover/Desktop/New folder”).
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Save your change to the Syntax file.
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In the Syntax Editor window you have been working in, select Run -> All
If you are still having issues opening the data file in SPSS, respond to this answer with which step is giving you issues.