Saving SPSS files (command syntax)

The SAVE command

To save the current dataset to a file named "Survey.sav", you would simply write:

SAVE OUTFILE="Survey.sav".

(.sav is the extension for SPSS data files, for this reason also called SAV files).

Additional options useful for data management tasks

The SPSS command corresponding to has a number of useful options for data management purposes .

SAVE OUTFILE='filename'
   [/KEEP=varlist] 
   [/DROP=varlist] 	  
   [/RENAME=(old.varlist=new.varlist)...]
   [/MAP]

/KEEP=varlist: an option that lets you write only the listed variables, all others will be ignored. In addition to this task, /KEEP can also be used to place variables into a different sequence (variables are written in the order they appear on the variable list).
/DROP=varlist is similar, except that you do not list the variables you want to keep, but those that you would like to drop.
/RENAME (varlistold = varlistnew) can be used to change the name of a variable while writing the dataset to a file. The old name list and the new name list must of course contain the same number of variables. Note that the new names are only stored in the file, the names in the current are not affected.
/MAP displays a list of variables saved to the file, and, if /RENAME has been used, the old and new names.

The same options are available with the GET FILEcommand.

Some commented examples

SAVE OUTFILE "survey"/KEEP=GENDER AGE PART.
Only the variables on the list will be written to "survey.sav".
SAVE OUTFILE "survey"/KEEP=PART AGE GENDER.
As above but the first variable in the new file will be PART (changing the sequence).
/RENAME=(d07 d08 = gender age)
the original variable names will be changed, i.e. "d07" will be named "gender" and "d08" "age".
/RENAME=(sex, age, housing educ educ1 educr = DEMOG1 to DEMOG6) is similar but uses the "TO" convention for the new variable list, i.e. DEMOG1, DEMOG2 etc are implied.

Advanced options

SAVE OUTFILE='filename'
 [/UNSELECTED=[{RETAIN} ¦{DELETE} ]
 [/VERSION={3 ¦ 2}]
 [/PERMISSIONS {READONLY ¦ {WRITEABLE}}]
 [/{COMPRESSED ¦ {UNCOMPRESSED}}]
 [/NAMES]

/UNSELECTED=
Determines what to when observations are currently filtered (temporary selection); by default RETAIN is used; DELETE deletes them. (see , if unsure what filtering observations means.)
/VERSION=
Use /VERSION=2 if the file needs to be compatible with SPSS versions 7.5 or earlier.
/PERMISSIONS
/PERMISSIONS=READONLY creates a file that can only be read, unless you change this property later. Default is /PERMISSIONS=WRITEABLE.
/COMPRESSED or /UNCOMPRESSED
Save the file in compressed (space saving, but requires more time) or uncompressed form (bigger files, faster). This is fact only of interest for very big files; the default is set to compressed (but this can be changed in .
[/NAMES]
List the 8 character long names that will be used in versions earlier than 12.0 (when up to 64 character long names were introduced); useful for compatibility only.