Next: Variable Record, Previous: System File Record Structure, Up: System File Format [Contents][Index]
A system file begins with the file header, with the following format:
char rec_type[4]; char prod_name[60]; int32 layout_code; int32 nominal_case_size; int32 compression; int32 weight_index; int32 ncases; flt64 bias; char creation_date[9]; char creation_time[8]; char file_label[64]; char padding[3];
char rec_type[4];
Record type code, either ‘$FL2’ for system files with uncompressed data or data compressed with simple bytecode compression, or ‘$FL3’ for system files with ZLIB compressed data.
This is truly a character field that uses the character encoding as
other strings. Thus, in a file with an ASCII-based character encoding
this field contains 24 46 4c 32
or 24 46 4c 33
, and in a
file with an EBCDIC-based encoding this field contains 5b c6 d3
f2
. (No EBCDIC-based ZLIB-compressed files have been observed.)
char prod_name[60];
Product identification string. This always begins with the characters ‘@(#) SPSS DATA FILE’. PSPP uses the remaining characters to give its version and the operating system name; for example, ‘GNU pspp 0.1.4 - sparc-sun-solaris2.5.2’. The string is truncated if it would be longer than 60 characters; otherwise it is padded on the right with spaces.
The product name field allow readers to behave differently based on
quirks in the way that particular software writes system files.
See Value Labels Records, for the detail of the quirk that the PSPP
system file reader tolerates in files written by ReadStat, which has
https://github.com/WizardMac/ReadStat
in prod_name
.
int32 layout_code;
Normally set to 2, although a few system files have been spotted in the wild with a value of 3 here. PSPP use this value to determine the file’s integer endianness (see System File Format).
int32 nominal_case_size;
Number of data elements per case. This is the number of variables, except that long string variables add extra data elements (one for every 8 characters after the first 8). However, string variables do not contribute to this value beyond the first 255 bytes. Further, some software always writes -1 or 0 in this field. In general, it is unsafe for systems reading system files to rely upon this value.
int32 compression;
Set to 0 if the data in the file is not compressed, 1 if the data is
compressed with simple bytecode compression, 2 if the data is ZLIB
compressed. This field has value 2 if and only if rec_type
is
‘$FL3’.
int32 weight_index;
If one of the variables in the data set is used as a weighting variable, set to the dictionary index of that variable, plus 1 (see Dictionary Index). Otherwise, set to 0.
int32 ncases;
Set to the number of cases in the file if it is known, or -1 otherwise.
In the general case it is not possible to determine the number of cases
that will be output to a system file at the time that the header is
written. The way that this is dealt with is by writing the entire
system file, including the header, then seeking back to the beginning of
the file and writing just the ncases
field. For files in which
this is not valid, the seek operation fails. In this case,
ncases
remains -1.
flt64 bias;
Compression bias, ordinarily set to 100. Only integers between
1 - bias
and 251 - bias
can be compressed.
By assuming that its value is 100, PSPP uses bias
to determine
the file’s floating-point format and endianness (see System File Format). If the compression bias is not 100, PSPP cannot auto-detect
the floating-point format and assumes that it is IEEE 754 format with
the same endianness as the system file’s integers, which is correct
for all known system files.
char creation_date[9];
Date of creation of the system file, in ‘dd mmm yy’ format, with the month as standard English abbreviations, using an initial capital letter and following with lowercase. If the date is not available then this field is arbitrarily set to ‘01 Jan 70’.
char creation_time[8];
Time of creation of the system file, in ‘hh:mm:ss’ format and using 24-hour time. If the time is not available then this field is arbitrarily set to ‘00:00:00’.
char file_label[64];
File label declared by the user, if any (see FILE LABEL in PSPP Users Guide). Padded on the right with spaces.
A product that identifies itself as VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3
uses
CR-only line ends in this field, rather than the more usual LF-only or
CR LF line ends.
char padding[3];
Ignored padding bytes to make the structure a multiple of 32 bits in length. Set to zeros.
Next: Variable Record, Previous: System File Record Structure, Up: System File Format [Contents][Index]