Vars to cases & retain variable/value labels Table

Question

I am flipping my survey data so I can use it in Tableau. Here is example data in SPSS (keep in mind that each variable has value & variable labels).

ID    age   rate1   rate2   rate3   mr_1    mr_2    mr_3     ...
1      35    8        3       2      1       2        
2      40    2        2       3              2       
3      41    6        3       5              2       3
4      43    3        3       1         

Where rate1-3 are 3 rating questions. Mr_1 to mr_3 is a multiple response check all the apply question (What is your ethnicity? 1=White 2=Hispanic, 3=Black)

I flip the data using this:

VARSTOCASES
  /MAKE answer FROM age rate1 rate2 rate3 mr_1 mr_2 mr_3
  /INDEX=Index1(7)
  /KEEP= All
  /NULL=KEEP.

Results look like this:

ID Index1 answer
1    1      35
1    2      8
1    3      3
1    4      2
1    5      1
...
...
...

Which works just fine when connecting this to Tableau. However, what I want is more than just Index1 as an identifier to each variable that has been flipped. What I want is this (Var, VarLab, ValueLabel are just String variables):

ID   Var           VarLab            answer    ValueLabel
1    'age'      'What is your age?'      35         '35'                             
1    'rate1'    'Rate food'               8         '8'
1    'rate2'    'Rate wait time'          3         '3'
1    'rate3'    'Rate bathroom'           2         '2'
1    'mr_1'     'Ethnicity'               1         'White'
1    'mr_2'     'Ethnicity'               2         'Hispanic'
...
...  
...    

As you can see, I retained the variable label, value label, and the variable name itself for each flipped variable. This is the ideal Tableau setup as Tableau requires "tall" datasets. Also, I can use either the string or numeric representation of the response. Lastly, I no longer need to edit aliases inside of Tableau. Any ideas how to accomplish this? Perhaps this will require python or macro? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is the solution based on the other answer using OMS, and I added few other things. This flips the vars you want and converts any other var you want to string.

dataset close all.
new file.

get file 'C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\testFile.sav'.

************************************************************************************************ 
TABLEAU SETUP
********************************************** 

insert file="C:/Users/nicholas/Desktop/Type2syntax.sps".

!toString vars = visitorType.

!flipAndMatch vars = rate1 rate2 rate3 mr_1 mr_2 mr_3.

exe.

*CATEGORIZE FLIPPED VARS

String filter (a150).
!groupingBy 'Rating satis' rate1 rate2 rate3.
!groupingBy 'MR with' mr_1 mr_2 mr_3.

save outfile 'C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\OtherTableauTest2.sav'.

"C:/Users/nicholas/Desktop/Type2syntax.sps" is :

* Encoding: UTF-8.

save outfile 'C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\tempSav.sav'.

DATASET DECLARE  varlab.
OMS   /SELECT TABLES   /IF COMMANDS=['File Information'] SUBTYPES=['Variable Information']
  /DESTINATION FORMAT=SAV OUTFILE='varlab' VIEWER=YES.

DATASET DECLARE  vallab.
OMS  /SELECT TABLES   /IF COMMANDS=['File Information'] SUBTYPES=['Variable Values']
  /DESTINATION FORMAT=SAV OUTFILE='vallab' VIEWER=YES.
display dictionary.
omsend.

DATASET ACTIVATE varlab.
rename variables var1= varName / label = Question.
alter type varName (a20).
alter type Question (a1000).
sort cases by varName.
SAVE OUTFILE='C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\varlabsTemp.sav'
/keep varName Question.

DATASET ACTIVATE vallab.
rename variables var1=varName / var2 = AnswerNumb / Label = AnswerText.
alter type varName (a20).
alter type AnswerText (a120).
sort cases by varName AnswerNumb.
SAVE OUTFILE='C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\vallabsTemp.sav'
/keep varName AnswerNumb AnswerText.

dataset close all.
new file.

get file  'C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\tempSav.sav'.
compute UNIQUE_ID = $casenum.


DEFINE !toString (vars=!CMDEND)
!DO !var !IN (!vars)
!LET !varDelete=!CONCAT("Delete", !var)
rename variables !var = !varDelete.
String !var (a120).
compute !var = valuelabels(!varDelete).
exe.
delete variables !varDelete.
!DOEND
!ENDDEFINE.

DEFINE !groupingBy (!POSITIONAL !TOKENS(1)
               /!POSITIONAL !CMDEND)
!DO !var !IN (!2)
!LET !varString=!CONCAT("'", !var,"'")
if varName eq !varString filter eq !1.
!DOEND
exe.
!ENDDEFINE.

DEFINE !flipAndMatch (vars=!CMDEND)
VARSTOCASES
 /MAKE AnswerNumb FROM !vars
 /INDEX=VarName (AnswerNumb)
 /KEEP=ALL
 /NULL=KEEP.
EXECUTE.

sort cases by varName AnswerNumb.
alter type varName (a20).

match files files*
/table='C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\vallabsTemp.sav'
/by varName AnswerNumb.

match files files*
/table='C:\Users\nicholas\Desktop\varlabsTemp.sav'
/by varName.

if AnswerText eq '' AnswerText = string(AnswerNumb, f).
!ENDDEFINE.

Output looks something like this. I didn't flip age or visitorType, but I certainly could have.

UNIQUE_ID    VarName    AnswerNumb    AnswerText   Question           filter          age       VisitorType
1             'rate1'        8           '8'      'Rate food'     'Rating group'       35    'Overnight Visitor'
1             'rate2'        3           '3'      'Rate wait time''Rating group'       35    'Overnight Visitor'
1             'rate3'        2           '2'      'Rate bathroom' 'Rating group'       35    'Overnight Visitor' 
1             'mr_1'         1         'White'    'Ethnicity'      'MR group'          35    'Overnight Visitor'
...

Answer 2

you need to use OMS to read the dictionary into two datasets - one for variable labels and one for value labels. then you can match your restructured dataset to the variable labels by variable name, and then match it to the value labels by variable name and value.

Run this to get the two datasets - BEFORE you restructure, of course:

DATASET DECLARE  varlab.
OMS   /SELECT TABLES   /IF COMMANDS=['File Information'] SUBTYPES=['Variable Information']
  /DESTINATION FORMAT=SAV OUTFILE='varlab' VIEWER=YES.
DATASET DECLARE  vallab.
OMS  /SELECT TABLES   /IF COMMANDS=['File Information'] SUBTYPES=['Variable Values']
  /DESTINATION FORMAT=SAV OUTFILE='vallab' VIEWER=YES.
display dictionary.
omsend.

now restructure and match files - (after renaming the proper variables for matching in the two new datasets).