Re: How to use MATCH FILES--Simple Example Needed

[Alan Mead]

See: https://www.google.com/search?q=spss+syntax+match+files&oq=spss+syntax+match+files

From memory:

match files file = 'one.sav'
  /file = 'two.sav'
  /by patient_id
  /map .
execute.

/MAP will show you a "map"  of the matched variables (and is optional)... The matched file will have all the cases and variables in both files. If a case doesn't match, it will appear in the matched file but be "half" missing. BTW, if patient_ID is a string, it needs to be the same size in both files. It's usually better to use numeric matching variables.

But I think this will fail (with spss, haven't tried pspp in a while) unless both files are sorted by patient_id and there are no duplicate patient ID's, so:

get /file = 'one.sav'.
sort cases by patient_id.
compute dup=0.
execute.
compute dup=lag(dup)+1.
freq / dup.
temporary.
select if dup > 0.
print / patient_id.
execute.

* resolve dups if you can...
* syntax below deletes duplicates...
select if dup=0.
save /outfile = 'sorted_deduped_one.sav'.

Do the above with two.sav and then match the sorted, de-duped files.

-Alan

On 2/22/2019 5:11 PM, mag wrote:

Hi List Members.  I am having trouble understanding the syntax for MATCHING files as shown in the manual.  I'll make this simple because I think I just need the basics--no renaming, or dropped variables.   Let's say I want to match data set ONE.sav and data set TWO.sav, by the variable PATIENT_ID.  All variables are numeric.  How would I do this? Please use the actual data set names (i.e., ONE.sav and TWO.sav) to make this as concrete as possible. 

One.sav variables = PATIENT_ID, Condition, Period.

Two.sav variables = PATIENT_ID,  TestScore1, Testscore2

Thank you very much for your help!

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Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
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