Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In the panel labeled
Files of type
select
the type of file you wish to open. Here
we have selected the Excel file type.
Figure A10
Navigation window where the Excel file format is chosen.
A.10 READING DATA FROM A TEXT FILE
If you are collecting a great deal of data and must hand enter it, typing it
directly into an SPSS data file (or an Excel file for that matter) may not
be the most efficient method of recording the data. To enter data into
different cells in SPSS or Excel requires an extra keystroke (
Ta b
or
arrow
key); thus, you make twice the number of keystrokes as data fields. With
thousands of pieces of data, you may opt for a more efficient data entry
strategy.
Entering the data into a word processing program may be a more
attractive option to record large quantities of data. Here, you can have as
Figure A11
The
dialog
window
for
reading
an
Excel file.
