I downloaded a sav file from qualtrics to do data analysis on a study I ran. The file is not giving me the option to delete rows or columns not needed in the analysis, and I cannot figure out why.

You should be able to delete rows or columns unless you have pending transformations. However, you can use the DELETE VARIABLES and SELECT CASES commands to do these operations.

You can select the variable by this code

SPSSINC SELECT VARIABLES MACRONAME="!vars"

You can use DELETE VARIABLES to delete the whole row or column.

How do I know if I got pending transformations? Im not able to clear rows or export my SPSS file to a excel file?

In case its pending transformations, what do I do to get a transform it back to a "normal" SPSS file?

If you have pending transformations, then "Transformations pending" will appear in the status bar. You can run them from the Transform menu (at the bottom) or by running an EXECUTE command.

However, pending tranformations don't prevent you from exporting the data.

To my knowledge the file isnt transformations pending. Very odd since it still wont export my SPSS file to an Excel file. I have tried many times and restart my computer etc., but SPSS shows an error:

"Error. Comand name: SAVE TRANSLATE, Incomplete (truncated) SPSS Statistics data file:".....", Execution of this command stops, Error # 1400 ...., Input error when reading a case".

Ok. That message is saying that the file is corrupted, so you can't do anything with it. I can't guess how that happened, but you will have to get a valid version.

A valid version means that I basically needs to start over?

Well. Thanks for helping even though it wasnt good news.

Sorry, yes. If you can explain the file history, maybe we can figure out where this happened.

Well, I got the original data extracted from a journalsystem. When doing so I get an Excel file which I then exported to a SPSS file. Since I have to merge to data files (when Im finished with this), I have to get all variables in the same order - and I have to rename some variables so I dont get to variables that got equal cases. Since there is some variables missing from some of the exxtracted files I just found it easier to export my SPSS file to an Excel file - then its possible to copy and/or use VLOOKUP cases direct and so.

I dont know if that makes sense? But the error happened when wanting to export the SPSS file to an Excel file.

Meanwhile I have saved a billion times and since SPSS saves a new file every time pressing "save", I thought the newest was ok and I then thought it would be fine deleting the oldest ones - so that I did. Now I have tried to find the deleted files and regenerate them, but it wasnt possible for me to find those ones at all.

The order of the variables in each file does not matter for matching. The matching process will line up the names. Renaming, of course, may be important, and if there are string variables, they need to be the same size in both files. But none of those issues would explain the file corruption. Make sure that your output device has sufficient free space. And, if a file is corrupted, running any statistical procedure will trigger an error.

Is it then possible to copy my data set to a new file? Or will it bring the corruption when copying?

If the dataset is corrupted, you can't extract the data except that you might be able to select the rows you can see in the Data Editor and copy to the clipboard.

If the dataset is corrupted, you can't extract the data except that you might be able to select the rows you can see in the Data Editor and copy to the clipboard.

I tried saving it as a new file and now it seems to work. For whatever reason a freshly exported file from Qualtrics doesn't seem to let me delete rows. 

I'm having this same issue. When I download a .sav file from Qualtrics it is not letting me delete any rows from data view. A few weeks ago I was able to do this without any issue, and everything else seems to be working fine, but it is not letting me delete any rows. The delete key does not work, and when I highlight and right-click on a row, all the options are blacked out except for insert cases. This is not ideal since I unable to delete test cases. I have downloaded the file multiple times so it is not a corruption issue. 

Hi Kyle,

Based upon information in this thread it appears that the .sav file was generated by a Qualtrics application. Qualtrics is a separate company that IBM does not have direct influence over. My recommendation for the problem of corrupted .sav files generated by Qualtrics is to report the problem to them so they can fix it.

In the meantime, if you are able to export from Qualtrics into some other format supported by Statistics such as a .csv file, an Excel workbook, or a database that you can access via ODBC, that may work better if the Qualtrics application handles those data formats better.

Best,