Whenever you launch SPSSWIN an empty spreadsheet (a new, as yet unnamed data file) will appear in the Data Editor. When you are creating a new data file, you can choose to define all the variables associated with the questionnaire (or other source of data) before any data are entered or enter all the data first and then define the variables.
Data File
An SPSSWIN data file is a rectangular file made up of columns (variables) and rows ("cases"). If the source of data is questionnaires, a case is one questionnaire (or a respondent). The data are the numeric values for all variables for every case. If there are 500 usable questionnaires, then the data file will contain 500 lines or cases (questionnaire #1 will be entered in row #1, questionnaire #2 in row #2, etc.)
Each column is a variable. The first column is typically the ID number. Column two would be the first variable in the questionnaire. Each succeeding variable would occupy column 2, column 3 and so on. If you are familiar with Microsoft Excel, you will recognize the Data Editor as a spreadsheet. Every cell contains a value for a variable.
