SPSS Macros

SPSS macros are fundamentally a form of string manipulation.

Contents

  1. SPSS Macros
    1. Arguments
      1. Named Arguments
      2. Positional Arguments

Arguments

Arguments can be passed into a macro. Be mindful that they will first be tokenized before being exposed to the macro expansion.

Function

Behavior

!tokens(N)

Consume N tokens

!charend('C')

Consume all tokens until C

!enclose('S','E')

Consume all tokens starting from S until E

!cmdend

Consume all tokens until the end of the command

Named Arguments

Tokens can be set into named arguments using a key = function pattern. 

define !generate(var1=!tokens(1)
                /var2=!tokens(1))
  compute !var1=0.
  compute !var2=0.
!enddefine.

!generate var1=foo var2=bar.
!generate var2=bar var1=foo.

Note that the arguments are accessed in the program by prepending the name with an exclamation mark (!).

Also note that arguments can be specified in any order.

Positional Arguments

Tokens can also be set into positional indices (!1, !2, and so on) using the !POSITIONAL keyword. 

define !generate(!positional !tokens(1)
                /!positional !tokens(1))
  compute !1=0.
  compute !2=0.
!enddefine.

!generate foo bar.

All positional arguments can be accessed as a blank-delimited string with !*.

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