Consider the file we call smauto that
contains four variables, make, mpg, weight and price.
get file 'c:https://stats.idre.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/smauto.sav'. list. MAKE MPG WEIGHT PRICE AMC Concord 22 2930 4099 AMC Pacer 17 3350 4749 AMC Spirit 22 2640 3799 Buick Century 20 3250 4816 Buick Electra 15 4080 7827 Number of cases read: 5 Number of cases listed: 5
You can use the descriptives command
with the save subcommand to make
standardized variables. The command below makes standardized values for mpg and
weight (called zmpg and zweight).
The save subcommand tells SPSS to make and save the z-scores of the variables listed on the
descriptives command. SPSS saves the new variable(s) by placing a "z" in front of the variable name.
DESCRIPTIVES VARIABLES = mpg weight /SAVE.
Descriptive Statistics
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
MPG
5
15
22
19.20
3.114
WEIGHT
5
2640
4080
3250.00
541.618
Valid N (listwise)
5
You can confirm that the variables were standardized
properly with the descriptives command.
descriptives variables = mpg weight price zmpg zweight.
Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation MPG 5 15 22 19.20 3.114 WEIGHT 5 2640 4080 3250.00 541.618 PRICE 5 3799 7827 5058.00 1606.718 Zscore(MPG) 5 -1.34854 .89903 .0000000 1.00000000 Zscore(WEIGHT) 5 -1.12626 1.53245 .0000000 1.00000000 Valid N (listwise) 5
The results above show that indeed zmpg and zweight are standardized (the mean is very close to, but not exactly 0 due to slight rounding error).
Instead of accepting the default name given to the standardized variables, you can name the variables yourself. For example, if you wanted to name the variables std_mpg and std_weight, you could include these names after each variable name. You can also shorten the syntax to include only an abbreviation for the descriptives command.
desc mpg (std_mpg) weight (std_weight) /save.