How To Open .sav Files Without Spss
As others have mentioned above, SPSS is a software package, and these SAV files are for use by the SPSS program. Asking you to open them without the software they are designed to be used with is like asking you to 'open' an SQL Server database file without installing SQL server. We’re going to use a method that allows backward compatibility with older versions of SPSS. To start, click File - Open - Data (as below). Once you click Data, the Open Data box will appear. In the Files of type box, you need to select Excel (see 1 above, though obviously things will look slightly different if you’re using a Mac).
The table below provides useful information about the .spss file extension. It answers questions such as:
- What is the .spss file?
- What program do I need to open a .spss file?
- How can the .spss file be opened, edited or printed?
- How can I convert .spss files to another format?
Table of Contents
- 🔄 .spss file converters
We hope you find this page helpful and a valuable resource!
1 extension(s) and 0 alias(es) found in database
✅ SPSS Script
Open Sav File Free
SPSS file is a SPSS script file. SPSS is a comprehensive statistical package that combines data manipulation and statistical analysis.
How To Open .sav File Without Spss
Other types of files may also use the .spss file extension.
🚫 The .spss file extension is often given incorrectly!
According to the searches on our site, these misspellings were the most common in the past year:
Is it possible that the filename extension is misspelled?
We found the following similar file extensions in our database:
🔴 Can't open a .spss file?
When you double-click a file to open it, Windows examines the filename extension. If Windows recognizes the filename extension, it opens the file in the program that is associated with that filename extension. When Windows does not recognize a filename extension, you receive the following message:
Windows cannot open this file:
example.spss
To open this file, Windows needs to know what program you want to use to open it...
If you don't know how to set the .spss file association, check the FAQ.
🔴 Can I change the extension of files?
Changing the filename extension of a file is not a good idea. When you change a file's extension, you change the way programs on your computer read the file. The problem is, changing the file extension does not change the file format.
If you have helpful information about the .spss file extension, write to us!
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SPSS data sets
If you have read data from a different format than SPSS, or if you have modified an existing SPSS file, you may wish to save your file for further use in SPSS format. This is done with the SAVE FILE
command.
Example:
SAVE OUTFILE = 'd:mydirectorymysubdirectorymydata.sav'.
where you have to fill in your directory and data set names. Note that SPSS issues no warning if you overwrite an existing data set, thus be careful in the choice of the name of this data set. Of course, if you have modified an existing data set, using the old name may be exactly what you want. However, this should only be done if you have augmented your data set, i.e. if you have added new variables. If you have changed, or even deleted, old variables, as a beginner you should use a different name for your data set even if you have changed or deleted these variables precisely because you wanted to get rid of them. But perhaps you have committed a mistake and wish to redo your modifications in a different way; this will be impossible if the original variables have not been kept somewhere.
As with the GET FILE
command, the KEEP, DROP
and RENAME
subcommands are available to change your data file during the SAVING process. If you want to get rid of most of your variables, it is useful to indicate which variables you want to KEEP; if you want to keep most of the variables, you will prefer to indicate which variables to DROP. Renaming variables can be useful for various purposes. Here's an example:
SAVE OUT = 'd:mydirectorymysubdirectorymydata.sav' | |
/ DROP var11 var15 var17 var88 | |
/ RENAME (var10 var19 = gender age). |
Note that SAVing your data file does not affect your working file. Thus, if you wish to use the SAVed data set for your next analysis steps, you first have to read in the file anew with the GET FILE
command. This may happen more frequently than you think; for instance, you may have modified your data, and in the process a number of 'intermediate' variables may have been used which are not of interest by themselves, but were needed in one way or other for creating new variables of interest. (For instance, you may wish to compute the overall household income from different types of income of several persons in a household; this may easily amount to hundred variables or more.) But when you have finished your task, these variables are no longer useful and only render your data set unnecessarily large. This is the moment when it is a good choice to SAVe your data and DROP
those variables you don't need any longer (or to KEEP
those with which you wish to pursue your work).
Saving your data in another format
For some reason or other, you may wish to analyze your data with other software. This 'other software' may be able to read SPSS data, but much more frequently than not this is not the case. SPSS can assist you by saving the data either in a specific format or in a general format that can be read by most software.
Here is a small selection of possibilities.
Saving data as a Stata™ file
SAVE TRANSLATE OUT = 'd:mydirmystatadata.dta' | |
/ TYPE=STATA | |
/ VERSION=8 | |
/ EDITION=SE | |
/ DROP var17 var20 var24 | |
/ REPLACE. |
REPLACE
will do what it looks like doing, i.e. any existing file with the same name will be overwritten. Of course, you may omit this command.
Saving data as a comma delimited file
In this type of file, the data will be in 'raw' format, with each data value separated from the next by a comma. This may be read by a variety of other software.
SAVE TRANSLATE OUT = 'd:mydirmycsvdata.csv' | |
/ TYPE=CSV | |
/ MAP. |
MAP
will produce an exact list of all variables written to the new file. Of course, the DROP
and KEEP
subcommands may be used as well.
Saving data as a tabulator delimited file
Use the same command as with a comma delimited file, but use TYPE=TAB
instead.
Saving data in a plain ASCII file
To save your data just as raw data and nothing else (no delimiters, no other characters), the command goes like this:
WRTIE OUT = 'd:mydirmyasciidata.txt' TABLE | |
/ var1 var17 var18 to var24. | |
EXECUTE. |
If you just wish to WRITE
the entire data set, use ALL instead of a varlist.
This procedure will produce an ASCII file in FIXED FORMAT (see section Read Raw Data on how to read such a file). Keyword TABLE
will make SPSS produce an exact description of the data set. Note that WRITE
will be accomplished only upon execution of another command or with the help of EXECUTE
, as demonstrated here.
© W. Ludwig-Mayerhofer, IGSW | Last update: 16 Sep 2009