SPSS at Holy Cross

A blog providing resources and support related to use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences at the College of the Holy Cross

Article on Python scripting in SPSS


A useful article on using the Python language within SPSS can be found here.


SPSS plugins


Go here to download plugin modules that allow you to use the Python and R programming languages from within SPSS.  Note that you will need to set up a free account on SPSS Developer Central in order to download the plugins.


Unrecognized text where a variable list was expected


When running an analysis with SPSS, the error message “Unrecognized text where a variable list was expected” may sometimes appear.  This error can occur after submitting an SPSS dialog box in which you have selected a series of variables to analyze.  The error can be caused by having an illegal variable name, for example names that begin with numbers.  Be sure that you name your variables using names like “FirstPlace,” not “1stPlace.”