Creating and Editing Data

Adding and Editing Observations

To add a new observation, type data into any cell in the last data table row. This row is marked with an asterisk ($\ast $).

When you are entering (or editing) data, the ENTER key takes you down to the next observation. The TAB key moves the active cell to the right, whereas holding down the SHIFT key and pressing TAB moves the active cell to the left. You can also use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate the cells of the data table.

It is possible to perform operations on a range of cells. If you select a range of cells, then you can do the following:

  • Delete the contents of the cells with the DELETE key.

  • Cut or copy the contents of the range of cells to the Windows clipboard, in tab-delimited format. This makes the contents of the cells available to all Windows applications (Excel, Word, and so on).

  • Paste from the Windows clipboard into the selected range of cells, provided that the data on the clipboard is in tab-delimited format. You can paste numeric data into cells in a character variable (the data are converted to text), but you cannot paste character data into cells in a numeric variable.

Typing in a cell changes the data for that cell. Graphs that use that observation will update to reflect the new data.

Note: If you change data after an analysis has been run, you need to rerun the analysis; the analysis does not automatically rerun to reflect the new data.