R help - May 2006 - variable names from SPSS data base

Hi R-users,
 
When I import a data base from SPSS with some variable with a name of
more than 8 characters (which is possible in version 12 or later of SPSS
software) I find that the name of these variables have been truncated to
8 characters. I used the 'read.spss' function from the 'foreign'
package.
Is there a function in R that solves this 'length variable names'
problem; so that the names of the variables of the imported R data base
be the same as the names of the original SPSS data base?
 
 
Thanks in advance!
 
 
Isaac Subirana (isubirana@imim.es)

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On Tue, 9 May 2006, SUBIRANA CACHINERO, ISAAC wrote:
> Hi R-users,
>
> When I import a data base from SPSS with some variable with a name of
> more than 8 characters (which is possible in version 12 or later of SPSS
> software) I find that the name of these variables have been truncated to
> 8 characters. I used the 'read.spss' function from the
'foreign'
> package.
They have not been truncated by R. R reads the short variable names that 
SPSS stores

There is no code in R to read the long variable names, or AFAIK any plans 
to write any -- it isn't a high priority for the people who wrote 
read.spss.  The basic C code needed is in the GNU PSPP program, but it 
would take some effort to extract it and put it in the foreign package.  I 
understand that SPSS also makes code available for reading SPSS files now, 
and that could be used instead.  We would welcome well-tested patches to 
read.spss, but I don't think it will happen any other way.


 	-thomas