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Problem customizing graph scale range with week date format in SPSS v27

  • 1.  Problem customizing graph scale range with week date format in SPSS v27

    Posted Fri April 16, 2021 10:04 AM

    Hello,

    I hope I'm writing in the correct forum here. I've searched but not found and hopefully not missed any previous discussions relevant for my problem in the forum. 
    I'm trying to create several 'epicurves' of weekly registered cases of influenza during several winter seasons, with the graph function in IBM SPSS v27.
    I'm using a scale variable, defined as type "Date" with the format "ww Wk yyyy" (format type "WKYRw") in the x-axis.
    I want the epicurves to include all values during a certain time period and to have the same scale ranges for both the x- and y-axes in order to be comparable. For example minimum week 40 in the autumn and maximum week 20 the following spring.

    My problem is that the x-axis range is automatically set to a certain minimum and maximum range (for example minimum week 44 and maximum week 12") based on the values, with the x-scales differing in my graphs from one winter season to another.  

    When I try to customize the range of the x-scale ("Chart Editor"à"Edit"à"Properties"à"Scale") the format is set to "2013-WWWWWWWWWW" while the x-axis tick label is displayed as "2013-44 WK" in the graph. When I try to set the minimum range value to "2013-Wk 40", "40 WK 2013" and so on I receive the error message "Invalid date".

    This problem does not occur when I use a different "Date" format ("Define Variable Properties"), for example "dd-mmm-yyyy", which allows me to unproblematically customize the range of the x-axis, with a more intuitive data format ("dd-mmm-yyyy").

    To summarize, I need support on how to customize the x-axis range with the minimum value "2013-Wk 40" and maximum value "2014-Wk-20", but I don't know what data format to type.


    I am grateful for any helpful support or advice,


    Best regards,

    Erik



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    Erik Rothman
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    #SPSSStatistics


  • 2.  RE: Problem customizing graph scale range with week date format in SPSS v27

    Posted Mon April 19, 2021 02:23 PM
    It looks like the Chart Editor doesn't understand this date format.  You can work around it by changing your date variable to a format it understands, setting the scale, then using the Date Format tab on the properties tab to set it to use week number and year.  Unfortunately you lose the "WK" prefix doing it this way.

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    LOUIS Kittock
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