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SPSS Tutorials: Getting Started with SPSS

View our tutorials for SPSS basics and data manipulation in SPSS.

Part 1: The SPSS Environment

SPSS is a user-friendly program that facilitates data management and statistical analyses. The first section of this tutorial will provide a basic introduction to navigating the SPSS program.

Part 2: Data Creation and Import

In order to use SPSS, you need data. You can either create data in SPSS or import data into SPSS from a file. Creating data means that you will enter the variables and values manually into SPSS to create a new dataset. Importing data means that you will use an existing data file that someone has already prepared and simply load it into SPSS. We cover both data creation and data importation in the following sections.

Part 3: Variables in SPSS

Variables are a key part of all datasets. They signify how your research was conducted, and dictate what types of analysis methods are appropriate. For this reason, it is important to know what variables are; how to define, compute, and recode them; and how to work with special types of variables, such as dates. This section of the tutorial will cover each of these topics.

Sample Data Files

Our tutorials reference a dataset called "sample" in many examples. If you'd like to download the sample dataset to work through the examples, choose one of the files below: