R devel - Sep 2007 - read.spss converts string variables with value labels to <NA> (PR#9896)

Full_Name: Jan Hucin
Version: 2.5.1 (foreign 0.8-20)
OS: WinXP
Submission from: (NULL) (195.113.83.7)


When reading an SPSS file:

- containing some variable of type String
- with value labels at that variable
- and with determination which values of that variable are considered to be
missing,

I have always get <NA> where digits were in the original SPSS file.

Example:
Let's have in an SPSS file "some.sav" the variable A. The type of
the variable
is String of length 1.
Let's have a value labeling: 1 = Yes, 2 = No, 8 = Invalid, 9 = Missing.
Let's determine that value 9 is considered to be missing.
When this file is read by
abc=read.spss("some.sav",use.value.labels=TRUE), we
get <NA> in abc$A on places where "1", "2" etc. were.
Surprisingly, we get "N/A"
(not <NA>!) on the place where the string "N/A" is.

If we specify use.value.labels=FALSE, then we get string values (such as
"1",
"2") but we lose value labels (Yes, No etc.).

Let me add that if the variable in the original SPSS file was of type Numeric
(not String), there would be no problem.