NOTE: This page was created using SPSS version 18.0.2.
Variables can be easily renamed using the SPSS command rename. However, if you would like to rename many variables in your dataset by simply adding a suffix to the variable name, this can be easily done with a simple Python program. Before running the examples below, you will need to install Python and the SPSS Python plug-in. These can be obtained from the SPSS website.
Example 1: Defining a function
We will start by defining a very simple function using Python. This function, which we call myprint, prints the string that you provide.
begin program.
def myprint(mystring):
print mystring
myprint("Hello, World!")
myprint("d:\data\elemapi2.sav")
end program.
We start all Python programs with the SPSS command begin program, and we end the Python program with the SPSS command end program. Because these are SPSS commands, they end with a period. On the second line, we define the function myprint, and the argument for that function is called mystring. Next, we use the Python print command to print mystring. Note that the print command must be indented. We then make two calls to myprint. First, we give the argument “Hello, World!”, and in the second call we give a path and data file name. Let’s see the output from this program.
Hello, World! d:dataelemapi2.sav
Example 2: Renaming variables using Python
In the next example, we will rename several variables by adding a suffix (in this example, the suffix will be _new) to the current variable name. We will use the elemapi2.sav dataset in this example and in the following examples.
begin program.
import spss, spssaux
spssaux.OpenDataFile('d:\data\elemapi2.sav')
vdict=spssaux.VariableDict()
mylist=vdict.range(start="grad_sch", end="enroll")
nvars = len(mylist)
for i in range(nvars):
myvar = mylist[i]
mynewvar = myvar+"_new"
spss.Submit(r"""
rename variables ( %s = %s) .
""" %(myvar, mynewvar))
end program.
As before, we start with the SPSS command begin program. Next we import two modules, spss and spssaux. We will use functions from these libraries in the program. On the third line, we open the data file. In this example, the data file is called elemapi2.sav, and it is located in a directory called ‘D:data’. On the fourth line, we put the names of the variables in the dataset into a Python variable called vdict. Next, we create a Python variable called mylist that contains only the names of the variables from our start variable (which is grad_sch in this example) to our end variable (which is enroll in this example). On the next line, we create a variable called nvars which contains the number of variables in mylist.
In the next part of the program, we use a loop to rename each of the variables contained in myvar. On the fourth line of the loop, we use the spss.Submit function so that we can use the SPSS rename variables command to rename the variables. We specify that the SPSS command should be read by Python as a raw string by using starting the string with r””” (the r means “raw”; we could have used R). The %s is used to represent a Python variable to SPSS. The first %s refers to the Python variable myvar, and the second %s refers to the Python variable mynewvar, as indicated in the parentheses after the close of the triple quotes. Please note that the indenting in the loop is necessary.
Example 3: Renaming variables with a Python function
In this example, we will write a Python function called renamefun to rename the variables. This function will have four arguments. The location and name of the dataset will be given in datapath; the first variable to be renamed will be given in mystart; the last variable to be renamed will be given in myend; the suffix to be used to rename the variables will be given in suffix. Each of these arguments must be given in quotes.
begin program.
import spss, spssaux
def renamefun(datapath, mystart, myend, suffix):
spssaux.OpenDataFile(datapath)
vdict=spssaux.VariableDict()
mylist=vdict.range(start=mystart, end=myend)
nvars = len(mylist)
for i in range(nvars):
myvar = mylist[i]
mynewvar = myvar+suffix
spss.Submit(r"""
rename variables ( %s = %s) .
""" %(myvar, mynewvar))
renamefun("d:\data\elemapi2.sav", "grad_sch", "enroll", "_new")
end program.
Much of the code above looks similar to that used in the previous example. We use the spssaux.OpenDataFile() function to open the data file with the variables that we want to rename. As before, we use the spssaux.VariableDict() function to obtain the names of the variables in the data file, then we select only the variables between the start variable and the end variable, and put those names into a Python variable called mylist. The loop used in this example is almost identical to the loop used in the previous example. Finally, we use our new function and then end the program.
def renamefun(datapath, mystart, myend, suffix):
spssaux.OpenDataFile(datapath)
vdict=spssaux.VariableDict()
mylist=vdict.range(start=mystart, end=myend)
nvars = len(mylist)
for i in range(nvars):
myvar = mylist[i]
mynewvar = myvar+suffix
spss.Submit(r"""
rename variables ( %s = %s) .
""" %(myvar, mynewvar))
Example 4: Using the Python function
You can save the syntax above as a Python function called renamefun.py in your Python directory. Once you have saved the file as a Python file (with the .py extension), you can use the SPSS program below to call the function. Because renamefun is just a function (rather than a complete module), you need to use the from option on the import statement.
begin program.
from renamefun import renamefun
import spss, spssaux
renamefun("D:\data\elemapi2.sav", "grad_sch", "enroll", "_myvar")
end program.
For more information
- For more information looping through lists of variables using Python, please see SPSS FAQ: How can I loop through two lists of variables? .
- For more information on renaming variables dynamically using SPSS loops, please see SPSS Code Fragment: A few SPSS loops for renaming variables dynamically .