Table of Contents
Yes, SPSS has the ability to select cases based on whether a string contains a specific text. This means that the program can search for a specific word or phrase within a string of text and select only the cases that contain that particular text. This feature can be useful for data analysis and allows users to easily filter and manipulate their data based on specific criteria.
Often you may want to select cases that contain specific text in SPSS.
Fortunately this is easy to do by using the char.index function in the Select Cases dialogue box.
The following example shows how to do so in practice.
Example: Select Cases if String Contains Specific Text
Suppose we have the following dataset in SPSS that contains information about points scored by basketball players on various teams:
Suppose that we would like to select all cases that contain the string “avs” in the name of the Team column.
To do so, click the Data tab and then click Select Cases:
In the new window that appears, click the button next to If condition is satisfied, then click the If button:
In the new window that appears, type the following formula into the dialogue box:
char.index(Team,"avs")>0
Then click Continue. Then click OK.
All of the cases that do not contain “avs” in the Team column will be crossed out:
How This Formula Works
Recall the formula that we typed into the dialogue box to check if each string in the Team column contained the string “avs” or not:
char.index(Team,"avs")>0
This formula uses the char.index function to return the position in the string of the Team column where the substring “avs” is first detected.
If the substring “avs” is not detected in the string, then the char.index function simply returns 0.
We then check if the value returned by char.index is greater than 0.
For cases that contain “avs” in the Team column, this formula will return True.
For cases that do not contain “avs” in the Team column, this formula will return False.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in SPSS: