Python reader + writer for spss sav files (Linux, Mac & Windows) (Python)

2013-02-20T22:07:27-08:00

Python recipe 577811 by Albert-Jan Roskam (reader, sav, spss, writer). Revision 12.

Python Program to READ & WRITE Spss system files (.sav) (Linux,Mac or Windows)

Check https://pypi.python.org/pypi/savReaderWriter/ for the latest version (including the libraries!)
Requires libspssdio.so.1 (LINUX) or libspssdio.dylib (MAC) or spssio32.dll (WINDOWS) plus associated libaries, which can be freely downloaded from: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/wikis/home/wiki/We70df3195ec8_4f95_9773_42e448fa9029/page/Downloads%20for%20IBM%C2%AE%20SPSS%C2%AE%20Statistics?lang=en
It is recommended to download the v21 I/O files (required for writing zlib (.zsav) compressed files)
December 2012 (complete rewrite):
Added support for slicing, indexing, array slicing + other special methods
Added support for writing spss date fields
Added support for almost all meta data (missing values, sets, roles, etc.)
Added support for 64 bit Windows (tested with Win7) and other OSs (z/Linux, Solaris, HP Linux, IBM AIX (untested though)
Added support for reading and writing zlib compressed (.zsav) files
Removed pesky segfault error when freeing memory
Removed errors related to encoding
Changed some Reader defaults (verbose=False, returnHeader=False)
Renamed SavDataDictionaryReader into SavHeaderReader

LINUX:

Installation (tested on Linux Ubuntu 10):

additional packages/files needed are: intel-icc8-libs_8.0-1_i386.deb,libicu32_3.2-3_i386.deb, libstdc++5_3.3.6-20_i386.deb, libirc.so.
Run the following commands in your terminal: sudo apt-get install intel-icc8-libs; sudo apt-get install libicu32; sudo apt-get install libstdc++5.
Then convert libirc.a (static) to libirc.so (dynamic), save in same location as libspssdio.so.1: ar vx intel-icc8-libs_8.0-1_i386.deb; tar -xzvf data.tar.gz ./usr/lib/libirc.a; ar -x libirc.a.

Calling the program:

In the TERMINAL type: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/of/additional/sofiles; python /some/path/wrapperToProgram.py. You may also add ld_library_path to .bashrc
The wrapper starts with "from SavReaderWriter import *", followed by e.g. stuff from the if __name__ == '__main__' section

MAC OS:

you must put all the dylib files that come with the IBM SPSS_Statistics_InputOutput_Modules_* package in the macos directory somewhere that OS X can find them
one simple way to accomplish this is to copy them to /usr/lib

WINDOWS:

You can also find this dll in the installation directory of SPSS (although SPSS is _not_ needed!)
The .dll should be saved in the same location as this program.

USAGE: See docstrings + __main__ section

Python reader for SPSS .por files (Python)

2009-06-15T15:37:39-07:00

Python recipe 576809 by wouter (por, portable, reader, spp, value_labels).

SPSS can output ASCII .por files that include variable definitions (labels, value labels) and data. These files are useful to be able to read but strange enough I couldn't find any documentation anywhere.

I've reverse engineered the format so that it works for the (fairly complex) files I need to open, so maybe it is of some use for other people interfacing SPSS with python.

This code is placed in the public domain as far as allowed by law, parts (if any) that cannot be relased in the public domain are irrevocably licensed to all readers under the Creative Commons license without restrictions ... but if you improve it it would be great if you could share it. The code uses a base N decoder plucked from the web somewhere (can't find it) that was also public domain.

-- wouter (wouter@vanatteveldt.com)

Popular recipes tagged "reader"

Python reader + writer for spss sav files (Linux, Mac & Windows) (Python)

Python reader for SPSS .por files (Python)