One of the new features in SPSS version 12 is OMS, which stands for Output
Management System.  This “system” is a series of commands that allows you
to output the results from any procedure into an SPSS data file, as well as
several other formats.  To keep things simple, we will only look at
outputting results to a data set.

To start, you use the oms command.  The only subcommand that is
technically required with this command is the destination subcommand, on
which you tell SPSS in what format to save your output and where you want that
file to be saved.  Often, you also need to use the if subcommand,
on which you specify which tables of the output that you want in your output
data file.  This is necessary because it is often not possible to create
one data set with all of the tables from the output in it.  (Of course,
this is not true of other output formats, such as html.)  To end your OMS
session, you can either issue the omsend command, or end your SPSS
session.  You can have multiple OMS sessions running concurrently, and you
keep track of them with the tab subcommand.  With the tab
subcommand, you can name the session when you start it, and then use that name
on the tab subcommand on the omsend command.  You can get
information on the various OMS sessions that are currently running by issuing
the omsinfo command.

Example 1

Let’s use the hsb2
data set for our example.  Suppose that we want to run a crosstab and
output the results to a data set.  First, we would start our OMS session by
issuing the oms command.  We will specify that we want our output
saved as a data file and that we would like this file saved on the D: drive.
On the if subcommand, after the commands keyword, we specify that
we want output created by the crosstabs command, and after the subtypes
keyword, we specify that we want the contents of the Crosstabulation table.
(The Case Processing Summary table would have been another option.)  The
quotes around the name of the command and the table are necessary,
as is the use of the equals signs and the square brackets.
Once we have started our OMS session, we issue the crosstabs command,
end our OMS session, and then open the new data file.  We use the list
command to see the data file in the output window.  (NOTE:  Although
you can type crosstab instead of crosstabs and get the correct output, in the
oms command, you must use crosstabs.  If you use crosstab, you will not
have any data in your new file.)

get file "D:hsb2.sav".

oms  select tables
 /destination format = sav outfile = "D:results.sav"
 /if commands = ['crosstabs'] subtypes = ['Crosstabulation'].

crosstabs tables = female by prog.

omsend.

get file "D:results.sav".
list.

The variables are listed in the following order:

LINE   1: Command_ Subtype_ Label_

LINE   2: Var1 Var2 Var3 @1.00 @2.00 @3.00 Total

Command_: Crosstabs Crosstabulation female * type of program Crosstabulation
        Var1: female .00  Count 21  47 23  91

Command_: Crosstabs Crosstabulation female * type of program Crosstabulation
        Var1: female 1.00 Count 24  58 27 109

Command_: Crosstabs Crosstabulation female * type of program Crosstabulation
        Var1: Total       Count 45 105 50 200

Number of cases read:  3    Number of cases listed:  3

Example 2

Now let’s try a slightly more complex example.
We will have two OMS sessions running concurrently and use one to obtain the
regression coefficients from a regression analysis and the other to obtain the
correlation coefficients from the correlations procedure.  As you can see
with the regression analyses, you can save the output from various analyses in
the same data set.  We have also used the numbered keyword on the
destination subcommand to add a new variable to our data set called
Table_Number.  This will tell us from which table the data are taken.

get file "D:hsb2.sav".
oms select tables
 /destination format = sav numbered = "Table_Number" outfile = "D:results1.sav"
 /if commands = ['regression'] subtypes = ['Coefficients']
 /tag = "reg".

oms select tables
 /destination format = sav outfile = "D:results2.sav"
 /if commands = ['Correlations'] subtypes = ['Correlations']
 /tag = "cor".

regression 
 dependent = write
 /method = enter female read.

correlations 
 /variables = write read math female.

omsend tag = ["cor"].
regression 
 dependent = write
 /method = enter female math.

regression 
 dependent = write
 /method = enter female read math.

omsinfo.

 

 

omsend tag = ["reg"].

get file "D:results1.sav".
list.

Table_Number Var2               B Std.Error Beta      t  Sig

         1   (Constant)    20.228   2.714    .    7.454 .000
         1   female         5.487   1.014   .289  5.410 .000
         1   reading score   .566    .049   .612 11.459 .000
         2   (Constant)    16.614   2.909    .    5.711 .000
         2   female         5.218    .998   .275  5.231 .000
         2   math score      .633    .053   .626 11.906 .000
         3   (Constant)    11.896   2.863    .    4.155 .000
         3   female         5.443    .935   .287  5.822 .000
         3   reading score   .325    .061   .352  5.355 .000
         3   math score      .397    .066   .393  5.986 .000

Number of cases read:  10    Number of cases listed:  10

get file "D:results2.sav".
list.

Var1          Var2                writingscore readingscore mathscore female

writing score Pearson Correlation        1          .597       .617     .256
writing score Sig. (2-tailed)            .          .000       .000     .000
writing score N                        200         200.0      200.0    200.0
reading score Pearson Correlation        1         1.000       .662    -.053
reading score Sig. (2-tailed)            0          .          .000     .455
reading score N                        200         200.0      200.0    200.0
math score    Pearson Correlation        1          .662      1.000    -.029
math score    Sig. (2-tailed)            0          .000       .        .680
math score    N                        200         200.0      200.0    200.0
female        Pearson Correlation        0         -.053      -.029    1.000
female        Sig. (2-tailed)            0          .455       .680     .
female        N                        200         200.0      200.0    200.0

Number of cases read:  12    Number of cases listed:  12

Example 3

For our last example, we will output different tables
from the output to different data files.  This is handy because you cannot
combine certain tables with other tables into the same data set using OMS.
For example, you cannot create a data set with the regression coefficients and
the model summary statistics.  Therefore, we will output these tables to
different data sets.  If you want them in the same data set, you can then
merge the two data files.

get file "D:hsb2.sav".

oms select tables
 /destination format = sav 
numbered = "TN" 
outputset = Coefficients Anova folder = "D:results3.sav"
Model Summary folder = "D:results4.sav"
 /if commands = ['regression'] subtypes = ['Coefficients' 'Anova' 'Model Summary'].

regression 
 dependent = write
 /method = enter female math.

omsend.

get file "D:results3.sav".
list
 /var = TN subtype_ to t.

get file "D:hsb2.sav".

oms select tables
 /destination format = sav 
numbered = "TN" 
outputset = Coefficients Anova folder = "D:results3.sav"
Model Summary folder = "D:results4.sav"
 /if commands = ['regression'] subtypes = ['Coefficients' 'Anova' 'Model Summary'].

regression 
 dependent = write
 /method = enter female math.

omsend.

get file "D:results3.sav".
list
 /var = TN subtype_ to t.

get file "D:results4.sav".
list.

                                                             Adjus
                                                Va      RSqu tedRS Std.Errorof
      TN Command_   Subtype_      Label_        r1    R are  quare theEstimate

       1 Regression Model Summary Model Summary  1 .676 .457  .451   7.02182

Number of cases read:  1    Number of cases listed:  1

Note that the length of the string variables Subtype_ and Label_ may be
different in the two files.  If they are, you will need to make them the
same before you can merge the files.  The easiest way to do this is to
change them in the Variable View of the Data Editor.  You can then use the
command below to merge the two files.

match files file = "D:results3.sav"
 /table = "D:results4.sav"
 /by TN.
exe.