Date:         Mon, 19 Sep 2005 22:32:46 -0600
Reply-To:     Jeff <stat2@jp.pair.com>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jeff <stat2@jp.pair.com>
Subject:      syntax or macro to remove variables
In-Reply-To:  <E1EHWJV-00044T-00@pop-cowbird.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

I'm working with a fairly large data set and need to reduce the file size
by removing a number of variables where the values for all records are
system missing (these represent survey questions that weren't asked during
the particular year of the survey I'm using). In the past, I've used the
following syntax to remove a single known variable, but how would I write
either simple syntax or a macro that would check each variable in the data
and delete all that contained no data?


MATCH FILES FILE=*/DROP not_needed_var.

Thanks

Jeff