At 09:34 AM 7/19/2009, Anna Woodcock wrote:

>I am working with a large data set >3000 variables and I want to >know if there is a quicker way to reorder variables than simply >dragging them into the desired position.

William Dudley's right: look at the /KEEP subcommand, probably on GET FILE or SAVE OUTFILE=.

If you're doing a /KEEP to reorder variables, it's a good idea to put keyword "ALL" at the end of the variable list. That will put any variables you left off your list at the end of the file, rather than losing them.

And finally, I'd give at least one hard look to the organization of your data. 3,000 is a great many variables. Many datasets that size have repetitious groups of variables, with the same data for different participants, different office visits, etc. It's commonly wise to restructure so that each such participant, visit, etc., is in a separate record. That gives more cases and fewer variables, and SPSS handles that more gracefully.

-Best wishes, Richard

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD