SPSS Statistics

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.

You may want to use the recode method to recode your Likert scales to numbers -- do you mean "5-Very high" when you refer to the survey results? If so, you can also just strip out the first character and recode it to a number.

Just check the bottom of the recode pop up screen to make sure that you are giving the new variable enough characters -- if you are recoding to 100 as your top rank, for example, make sure your new variable length is set to 3.

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.

Hi Jon, thanks for your reply. I tried your method in syntax with several different sets of variables and one of them created a Z column but the others just gave a variety of error messages. I must be missing something. 

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.

VARSTOCASES would also work

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.

I'm not familiar with that, can you tell me a little more about how to use it? Thanks! 

VARSTOCASES would also work

What is the best way to combine data from 5 columns into just one column? Of the 5 columns, only one has data in it, so there's only one response per person to aggregate into one column. I thought I could code the string variables into numbers and then add them in a separate column, but that isn't working. Any thoughts? I have mostly string data but will code them into numbers, so I can try it with either type of data. When I code them into numbers I get an unfamilar message that says "Warning: String variables being recoded differ in length. The recode may be inappropriate for some variables," but it looks like it recodes just fine. I'm recoding a Likert scale like I always do, so it seems like it came out of Survey Monkey a bit wonky. Thanks for any ideas you have! I thought this would be easy.