[R] importing spss files without value labels

[Paul Bivand]

Most users of spss files need to have the value labels as they handle
categorical variables, with the numeric representation being
arbitrary. So the packages that handle importing them (foreign, Hmisc,
memisc, haven) make that easy.

For numeric variables, survey houses often categorise different sorts
of missing variables with a value label of -9 or -8 etc. You'll need
to be aware of this and handle these.

Memisc offers the advantage of only importing needed variables, but
the stripping of labels would most likely have to be done in R. Try
the maintainer of memisc. And, read the documentation - for importers,
data.set, measure.

Paul Bivand
Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion
London

On 9 October 2015 at 19:43, David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> On Oct 9, 2015, at 9:19 AM, Yongnam Kim wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I know how to import spss data file (.sav) to R using foreign pkg like
>> read.spss(file, use.value.labels = FALSE,...) but I like to use a different
>> pkg, in particular, memisc. Is there any corresponding way to drop the
>> value labels when importing?
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>>       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> This is the third day in a row that you have posted an identical message. You should be asking yourself why you have not gotten any answers. One possibility is that people do not have any copies of an spss file that they can use for testing. You might consider posting a link to one. You should also read the Posting Guide:
>
>   http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>
> And also read the linked classic article by Eric Raymond that discusses how to proerly ask a technical question on a technical forum.
>
>>
>
> And as always .... do post in plain text.
>
> --
>
> David Winsemius
> Alameda, CA, USA
>
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