Output Drivers

PSPP has output drivers for several formats. This section documents the supported formats and how they can be configured:

Text Output (.txt and .text)

PSPP can produce plain text output, drawing boxes using ASCII or Unicode line drawing characters.

Plain text output is encoded in UTF-8.

This driver has the following options:

  • width = <columns>
    Sets the maximum page width to the specified number of columns. To fit in the given width, output table columns will be word-wrapped or, if necessary, tables will be broken into multiple chunks. The default is no maximum width.

  • boxes = "unicode"
    boxes = "ascii"
    Sets the style used for boxes in the output. The following shows an example of each style:

      unicode       ascii
┌────┬────┐  +----+----+
│    │    │  |    |    |
├────┼────┤  +----+----+
│    │    │  |    |    |
└────┴────┘  +----+----+

    Unicode boxes are generally more attractive but they can be harder to work with in some environments. The default is unicode.

  • emphasis = <bool>
    If this is set to true, then the output includes bold and underline emphasis with overstriking. This is supported by only some software, mainly on Unix. The default is false.

PDF Output (.pdf)

This driver has the following options:

  • page_setup = <PageSetup>
    Sets the page size, margins, and other parameters. The following sub-options are available:

    • initial_page_number = <number>
      The page number to use for the first page of output. The default is 1.

    • paper = "<size>"
      Sets the page size. <size> takes the form <w>x<h><unit>, e.g. 8.5x11in or 210x297mm, or the name of a standard paper size, such as letter or a4. The default is system- and user-dependent.

    • margins = "<trbl>"
      margins = ["<tb>", "<lr>"]
      margins = ["<t>", "<rl>", "<b>"]
      margins = ["<t>", "<r>", "<b>", "<l>"]
      Sets the margins. Each variable is a quoted string with a length and a unit, e.g. 10mm. The one-value form sets all margins to the same length; the two-value form sets the top and bottom margins separately from left and right; and so on. The default is 0.5in.

    • orientation = "portrait"
      orientation = "landscape"
      Controls the output page orientation. The default is "portrait".

    • object_spacing = "<length>"
      Sets the vertical spacing between output objects, such as tables or text. <length> includes a length and a unit, e.g. 10mm. The default is 12pt, or 1/6 of an inch.

    • chart_spacing = "as_is"
      chart_spacing = "full_height"
      chart_spacing = "half_height"
      chart_spacing = "quarter_height"
      Sets the size of charts and graphs in the output. The default, "as_is", uses the size specified in the charts themselves. The other possibilities set chart size in terms of the height of the page.

    • header = "<heading>"
      footer = "<heading>"
      Sets the header, output at the top of each page, and the footer, output at the bottom of each page. Both header and footer are expressed in HTML. Only simple HTML features are supported, including the following HTML elements:

      • <html>, optionally, as a top-level element.

      • <head>, optionally, as a first element enclosing a <style> element with simple CSS. Only the following CSS properties, for p elements only, are supported:

        • color: an RGB value, e.g. #RRGGBB.

        • font-weight: either bold or normal.

        • font-style: either italic or normal.

        • text-decoration: either underline or normal.

        • font-family: a font name.

        • font-size: a font size1.

      • <p>, optionally, for dividing text into multiple paragraphs. The align attribute is honored, as is the text_align property on the style attribute.

      • <br> for breaking a paragraph into lines. Line breaks inside HTML are also treated as breaks.

      • <b>, <i>, <u>, <strike>, <strong>, and <em> for styling text.

      • <font>, with attributes face, color, and size1.

      • Other elements are accepted but ignored.

      Text in a header or footer may include any of the following variable references, which are expanded at output time:

      • &[Date]
        &[Time]
        The current date or time in the preferred format for the locale.

      • &[Head1]
        &[Head2]
        &[Head3]
        &[Head4]
        The name of the first-, second-, third-, or fourth-level heading corresponding to the first output item that appears on the page with the header or footer.

      • &[PageTitle]
        The title set with the TITLE command.

      • &[Filename]
        Name of the output file.

      • &[Page]
        The page number.

      The following example shows how to put a centered title at the top of each page and a right-justified page number at the bottom:

      header = '<p align="center">&amp;[PageTitle]</p>'
footer = '<p align="right">Page &amp;[Page]</p>'

HTML Output (.htm and .html)

PSPP can produce HTML output.

HTML output is encoded in UTF-8.

This driver currently has no options.

Comma-Separated Value Output (.csv)

PSPP can produce output in comma-separated value format.

CSV output is encoded in UTF-8.

This driver has the following general options:

  • quote = "<char>"
    A single character for quoting multi-line fields and fields that contain the delimiter. The default is ".

  • delimiter = "<char>"
    A single character to separate fields. The default is ,.

The following additional options only affect output written by pspp convert:

  • var_names = false
    By default, pspp convert writes the variable names as the first line of output. With this option, pspp convert omits this line.

  • recode = true
    By default, pspp convert writes user-missing values to CSV output files as their regular values. This options makes pspp convert write them the same way as system-missing values (as a single space).

  • labels = true
    By default, pspp convert writes variables' values to CSV output files. With this option, pspp convert writes value labels.

  • print_formats = true
    By default, pspp convert writes numeric variables as plain numbers. This option makes pspp convert honor variables' print formats.

  • decimal = "<char>"
    This option sets the character used as a decimal point in output. The default is ..

JSON Output (.json)

PSPP can produce output in JSON format.

CSV output is encoded in UTF-8.

This driver currently has no options.

SPSS Viewer Output (.spv)

PSPP can produce output in SPSS Viewer format.

This driver has the following options:

  • page_setup = <PageSetup>
    Sets the page size, margins, and other parameters. <PageSetup> has the same form documented for PDF format.

System File Output (.sav)

PSPP can produce output in the form of SPSS system files, which usually have a .sav extension.

This driver has the following options:

  • compression = "<compression>"
    Sets the kind of compression used for writing data in the system file. <compression> must be one of the following:

    • simple: Uses a simple form of compression that saves space writing small integer values and string segments that are all spaces. All versions of SPSS support simple compression.

    • zlib: Uses more advanced compression that saves space in more general cases. Only SPSS 21 and later can read files written with zlib compression.

Portable File Output (.por)

PSPP can produce output in the form of SPSS portable files, which usually have a .por extension.

The portable file format is mostly obsolete. The "system file" or .sav format should be used for writing new data files.

This driver has no options.

  1. Font sizes on <font> and in CSS may be given as points, e.g. 10pt, or as a bare number interpreted as follows:

    NumberSize
    16 pt
    27.5 pt
    39 pt
    410.5 pt
    513.5 pt
    618 pt
    727 pt
    ↩ ↩2