Statistics: Appendix A: Entering a questionnaire into SPSS

In a survey (or questionnaire) you ask various questions. These questions can be concidered variables and are therefor entered in SPSS in the 'Variable view'.

The variable view asks a few different properties for each variable:

Name
This should be like a nickname, short but clear. You cannot use spaces or let the name begin with a number. If I ask on a survey "What is your pet name?" an appropriate name for this variable might be pet.
Type
This indicates what you will be typing in. The two most commonly used options are 'Numeric' if you will be typing in numbers, or 'String' if you are typing in text. Note that if you assign numbers to values (e.g. 1 = Male, 2 = Female), you should set the type to Numeric. There are a few other options as well (date, currency, etc.).
Width
This is NOT the width of the column, but the number of characters you can enter. For numeric variables this is not of any influence, but for string variables you will need to guess how many characters you might need. For example if I ask for a pet name, the pet name Fluffy Bun, would require 6 spaces for Fluffy, 1 for the space and 3 for Bun, so 9 in total. There are longer pet names, so I might guess 30 to be a good start.
Decimals
As the name implies, this sets how many decimals will be shown when entering the data. Note that when entering the data later you can actually type in more decimals and SPSS will remember those, it will simply not display them on screen.
Label
Here you can enter a longer description of the variable and can use spaces. Some even simply copy the entire question here.
Values
With values you can assign a value to the different options on multiple choice questions (e.g. 1 = Male, 2 = Female). You can only assign numbers if the type has been set to Numeric.
Missing
You can assign a value if someone skipped the question, incorrectly answered it, unreadable answered it, etc. By typing in still a value you can distinguish if you forgot to enter something (showing as an empty cell in the data view) or that the respondent really didn't answer it (showing in the data view as your assigned missing value). I recommend to use the same missing value for all variables, and it should not be a possible value for any of the variables. Using for example 9 might be a problem if you ask children also for their age and they might be 9. I often use 999, but that's just me.
Columns
This is actually the width of the column. I normally adjust it visually in the data view.
Align
The entered values in the data view can either be shown to the left, center or right of the column.
Measure
The measurement level of the variable. Note that SPSS combines interval and ratio to one level called scale. See this entry for more details on measurement levels.
Role
I'm still confused what this option does. It came only since SPSS 18 I think.

A video on how to enter all different types of questions (see this entry) are shown below. In part 1 only the Name and Label are entered, in part 2 the remaining properties are discussed, in part 3 the data is actually entered and in part 4 a small check is done.

Part 1: Entering the questions themselves prt. 1