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“Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters or it is not defined by a previous command.”

  • 1.  “Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters or it is not defined by a previous command.”

    Posted Fri August 07, 2020 11:59 AM

    Hello all,

    I'm trying to create a new variable on IBM SPSS. I'm adding all my items which are simple names such as H1+H2 and so on. I have 25 items and I need to divide them by 25. The type is numeric, the measure is ordinal. When I choose the compute function and adding them all together I receive this message “Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters or it is not defined by a previous command.”

    I've tried different things, change the name of the variable, change the name of the items and nothing seems to work. I've tried the paste option for Syntax and the same text is showing up again. It doesn't let me create the variable but there is no obvious reason why. Any suggestions?






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  • 2.  RE: “Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters or it is not defined by a previous command.”

    Posted Fri August 07, 2020 12:52 PM

    The message means that some variable used in the expression does not exist in the dataset, but to say any more, you need to post the syntax. You can copy it from the expression field and paste it here. Of course, to check existance, you would need to provide the list of names in the data file.






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  • 3.  RE: “Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters or it is not defined by a previous command.”

    Posted Mon August 10, 2020 02:58 PM

    I don't have syntax. I was selecting paste for syntax but the same message was coming up.






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  • 4.  RE: “Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters or it is not defined by a previous command.”

    Posted Mon August 10, 2020 03:25 PM

    The dialog box is doing the same check. If you want to send me the sav file and a screen shot of the formula, I'll take a look (jkpeckSupport Member). Unfortunately, you can't post an image on this site.






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  • 5.  RE: “Incorrect variable name: either the name is more than 64 characters or it is not defined by a previous command.”

    Posted Tue November 17, 2020 05:36 PM
    this happened to me because I made a mistake not putting + between items. for example: sopp1+sopp2+sopp3sopp4. when I corrected that, all worked fine






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