Inspecting SPSS/PC+ Files

The pspp show-pc command reads an SPSS/PC+ system file which usually has a .sys extension, and produces a report.

SPSS/PC+ has been obsolete since the 1990s, and its file format is also obsolete and rarely encountered. Use pspp show to inspect modern SPSS system files.

The basic syntax is:

pspp show-pc <MODE> <INPUT> [OUTPUT]

where <MODE> is a mode of operation (see below), <INPUT> is the SPSS/PC+ file to read, and [OUTPUT] is the output file name. If [OUTPUT] is omitted, output is written to the terminal.

The following <MODE>s are available:

• dictionary: Outputs the file dictionary in detail, including variables, value labels, and so on. With --data, also outputs cases from the system file.

  This can be useful as an alternative to PSPP syntax commands such as DISPLAY DICTIONARY.

  pspp convert is a better way to convert an SPSS/PC+ file to another format.

• metadata: Outputs metadata not included in the dictionary:

  • The creation date and time declared inside the file (not in the file system).

  • The name of the product family and product that wrote the file, if present.

  • The file name embedded inside the file, if one is present.

  • Whether the file is bytecode-compressed.

  • The number of cases in the file.

Options

pspp show-pc accepts the following options:

• --data [<MAX_CASES>]
  For mode dictionary, and encodings, this instructs pspp show-pc to read cases from the file. If <MAX_CASES> is given, then that sets a limit on the number of cases to read. Without this option, PSPP will not read any cases.

• -o <OUTPUT_OPTIONS>
  Adds <OUTPUT_OPTIONS> to the output engine configuration. See Output Drivers for information on how to configure output.

  If no output driver is specified, the default output format is chosen based on [OUTPUT]'s extension. If [OUTPUT] is omitted, output is written to stdout in JSON format.