[SPSS] How to Insert a Large Number of Cases

This post covers how to insert a large number of cases.

Step 1. Preparation

As far as I know, there is no convenient way to insert a large number of cases from a blank SPSS dataset file (.sps file).

Instead, we will use Excel first to generate the data.

Let's say we want to make a thousand cases.

Open a new Excel sheet and insert any value.

Let's try 1001, and press {Enter} and click the cell.

Step 2. Fill menu

While keep selecting the cell, go to [Home] tab and find [Editing] section. Click [Fill] menu button and click [Series] and then a new window will open.

Make sure that the series will be in [Columns] and [Linear] type.

The [Step value] means the difference between consecutive two steps, and [Stop value] is where you want to stop.

We can put whatever value for the [Step value] but I will use the default value which is 1.

The [Stop value] for this example should be 2000 since we wanted to make a thousand cases.

Click 'OK' and check if you got it right by {Shift+Ctrl+↓}, which it will take you to the very last cell.

Step 3. Paste to SPSS

The final step is to {Ctrl+C] the data and click one of the cells in the SPSS dataset and {Ctrl+V}.

Application

You can change the 'Step value' if needed, and generate as many cases as you want.

More importantly, this is the very initial step to any further variable generation or computation.