Create an SPSS setup file (.sps) to use for reading in fixed-width text files

make_sps_setup() is used to create the setup file used in reading in fixed-width text files. Often the setup file comes with the data file but in some cases (usually with government data) you will need to create the setup file yourself.

make_sps_setup(
  file_name,
  col_positions,
  col_names = NULL,
  col_labels = NULL,
  value_labels = NULL,
  missing_values = NULL
)

Arguments

file_name	Name of the file to be saved (e.g. "setup_file1"). There is no need to put the .sps extension in the file name.
col_positions	Either a vector of strings indicating the start and end position of each column (e.g. "1-3", "4-5") or a vector of the widths of the columns (e.g. 3, 2).
col_names	A vector of names for the columns. If none are provided, will automatically create names based on column number (e.g. V1, V2, V3).
col_labels	A vector of labels for the columns. These are often longer and more descriptive than the col_names. These are the values used as column names if real_names = TRUE in reading in the data.
value_labels	A vector with the value first, then an ' = ' then the label. Each new column should have the column named followed by ' ='.
missing_values	A vector of strings with the column name followed by the values to be replaced by NA.

Value

Does not return any object. Saves the .sps file that is created.

Examples

if (FALSE) {
  value_labels <- c("var1 = ",
                     "1 = label 1",
                     "2 = label 2",
                     "3 = label 3",
                     "4 = label 4",
                     "5 = label 5",
                     "var3 = ",
                     "1A = alpha",
                     "1B = bravo",
                     "1C = cat")
missing_values <- c("state name", "9", "-8", "county", "-8")
make_sps_setup(file_name     = "example_name",
               col_positions = c(1, 3, 4, 2),
               col_names     = c("var1", "var2", "var3", "var4"),
               col_labels    = c("state name", "county",
                              "population", "census region code"),
               value_labels  = value_labels,
               missing_values = missing_values)
}