Hi, I am very new to SPSS so if there is an easy way to do this please let me know. I have a data I am using for my dissertation which includes different housing segments in each census tract (ZBEZ) in a city. The problem is that the data is setup so that each tract doesn't have regular breakdowns of each segment. e.g. ZBEZ 101 has data for segments A,B,D whereas 102 has data for A,B,C,D. and when it has no data for a segment it just doesn't include the value. I need some way of separating just the data for 2 segments while retaining the list of census tracts by making so that each tract e.g. if there is no data for segments A and B, they = 0. If this isnt clear, don't hesitate to ask and I will try explain

Hi @Daragh McQuaid
Are you saying that you want the empty cells of the data editor (e.g. all the cells corresponding to tract 101, segment C -- which have no data) to have a zero value (0) rather than the System Missing value (.)?

You say you are a beginner.  As a user of SPSS since 1972, I would strongly advise you to preserve the distinction between user missing and system missing.

When you know why the value is missing assign a labelled user missing value.

For example

Value labels -1 'census did not supply a value'.

A user should never assign a SYSMIS value to a variable.  It is very helpful in debugging to reserve the use of SYSMIS for instances where the system is unable to follow your instructions.

It would be very helpful if SPSS had an option to warn if a user assigned a SYSMIS value to a variable.