CODEWITHSUNDEEP
spss
Gert
Gert

Reputation: 1

SPSS Compute a new variable with the last four digits of a numeric variable

I have a numeric variable (year of birth) in SPSS and i would like to take the last for digits out of it. Most values are like 1988, 2001, 1948 etc. But about 250 respondents entered their year of birth like 30-2-1947, or 2-9-1984 etc. That means not all values have the same length. By taking the last 4 digits into a new variable I could create an age category for all the respondents.

How can I do that?

I tried by converting the variable to a string and using substr to get a part of the value, but I always had to choose a starting point. I want to start from the last digit and then move backwards.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 645

Answers (1)

user45392
user45392

Reputation: 622

Instead of using SUBSTR() you can try using RIGHT() to grab the last four digits.

* convert yob to string variable.
ALTER TYPE yob (A10).
EXE .

* use RIGHT to extract the last 4 digits and convert to numeric.
COMPUTE n_yob = NUMBER(RIGHT(yob, 4, F4)) .
EXE .

You can now use n_yob to calcuate age (ex: COMPUTE age = 2022-n_yob .). You can also use ALTER_TYPE again if you want to convert yob back to it's original type.

Upvotes: 1

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