There are many instances in which the data provided initially needs to be changed before analysis can begin. Chapter 7, Creating New Data Elements, described a variety of SPSS capabilities to create new variables using the transformations commands and Chapter 8, Adding and Matching files, dealt with the capabilities available to match and add files. This chapter builds on what was covered in these two chapters by introducing the use of aggregation to create summary variables by calculating statistics such as the mean, sum, minimum and maximum across a set of cases in the data. This information can be used to add fields for analytical purposes, and the aggregated file itself can be used to conduct investigations using a different unit of analysis.
The key topics that will be addressed in this chapter are as follows:
- Adding aggregated fields back...
