A note on SPSS syntax: At 11:41 AM 11/29/2008, Nancy Darling wrote,

>If you have a lot of random ids you want to select, you can compute >a temporary variable that is set to 0 and becomes 1 if it matches >the id. Then select for the temporary variable (similar to the >syntax in the original post). > >compute tempid=0. >if id=5 or id=8 or id=10 or id=27 or id=105 tempid=1. >if id=1005 or id=1008 or id=1010 or id=1027 or id=1105 tempid=1.

Right. But that overlooks RECODE, one of the best-designed features of SPSS, which gives shorter and (I think) clearer syntax:

RECODE id ( 5, 8, 10, 27, 105 = 1) (1005, 1008, 1010, 1027, 1105 = 1) (ELSE = 0) INTO tempid.

>select if tempid=1.

(There are many variations to RECODE syntax. A lot of people would write

RECODE id ( 5, 8, 10, 27, 105, 1005, 1008, 1010, 1027, 1105 = 1) (ELSE = 0) INTO tempid.

and some would go the other way and write,

RECODE id ( 5 = 1) ( 8 = 1) ( 10 = 1) ( 27 = 1) ( 105 = 1) (1005 = 1) (1008 = 1) (1010 = 1) (1027 = 1) (1105 = 1) INTO tempid.

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