Reading delimited text data files

Here is a snapshot of a portion of a comma-delimited text file:

A delimiter is a character such as a comma that serves as a separator between elements across a line of data. A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text, often using the ASCII character set. Such a file is easily viewed in Windows accessories such as Notepad. Note that row 1 of the comma-delimited text file is a header row containing variable names for the columns.

IBM SPSS Statistics can directly read a delimited text file. There are different implementations in different recent releases of IBM SPSS Statistics, but the capability exists on the File menu. In IBM SPSS Statistics 24, use the following path:

File | Import Data

Here is the Read CSV File dialog box:

The Read CSV File dialog box shows the name of the file and a...