Introduction

Index

• Introduction
• What is a script?
• Sax Basic Engine version
• Site sections

Site target

This is a site related to the script facility of the SPSS statistical application.
If you don't know what the SPSS package is, you may find information on it by looking at their home page.

What is a script?

The script facility is a programming language, similar to VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), used by MS Office applications to implement macros.
The script interacts with SPSS by using the objects made available by the statistical application.
Since these objects use the Microsoft's OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) technology, they can be used within Word, Excel macros or within any programming language (written for the MS Windows operating system) such as Visual Basic, C++, Delphi.

Sax Basic Engine version

SPSS Scripts are implemented by the Sax Basic Engine created by Sax Software.
SPSS 8, 9 and 10 come with the 4.1.03 version of this engine. The version number can be obtained by looking at what is displayed by executing the following script code:

Sub Main()
    AboutWinWrapBasic 0
End Sub

You can gather information on the features but also on the bugs of the engine by looking at the Release notes page of Sax Software's web site.
Here is a list of version 4.1.03 reported bugs (taken from that page) which may affect scripts. Notice that the following ARE NOT SPSS bugs, but only Sax Basic Engine bugs.

• Mid(S,...) = expr fails on uninitialized String*n variables.
• The logical expression Me = Nothing causes GPF.
• Dim S As String*n is not allowed for values ranging from 501 to 1000.
• Picture dialog item doesn't work with some BMP files.
• Breakpoints in a code module's Private Sub Main, a class module's Class_initialize/Class_Terminate and an object module's Object_initialize/Object_Terminate procedures is ignored.
• A run-time error during a code module's Private Sub Main, a class module's Class_initialize/Class_Terminate and an object module's Object_initialize/Object_Terminate procedures cause an access violation.

Site sections

If you're not familiar with any programming language, in the Script language section there is a short introduction to the Sax Basic script language.

In the Autoscripts section there is a short definition of autoscripts.

A description of SPSS objects is then available. This description is based on SPSS version 8.0.2. This means that it includes properties/methods not supported by earlier versions.
Actually, I don't remember what properties/methods were added at each release. For those I remember, you will find the starting SPSS version number when the property/method is supported.

In the Download section there are some scripts I wrote. They are self-explaining: if you aren't interested in learning scripts, but just you've been searching for new scripts ready to use, this is the section that could be suitable for you.

The Bugs section contains a list of SPSS OLE objects properties/methods which behave in a different way than what described in the help file documentation included in the SPSS package.

I hope this site will be helpful to you.

If you want any information, or you want to give me any advice on how to improve this site, send an e-mail to me.