You can use the VAR clause to select a set of variables. The general form of the VAR clause is as follows:

where operand can be specified by using one of the following items:

• a literal that contains variable names

• the name of a matrix that contains variable names

• an expression in parentheses yielding variable names

• one of the following keywords:

  _ALL_

  for all variables

  _CHAR_

  for all character variables

  _NUM_

  for all numeric variables

The following examples show all possible ways you can use the VAR clause:

  var {time1 time5 time9};  /* a literal giving the variables   */
  var time;                 /* a matrix that contains the names */
  var('time1':'time9');     /* an expression                    */
  var _all_;                /* a keyword                        */

For example, to list students’ names from the CLASS data set, use the VAR clause with a literal, as in the following statement:

   > list point p var{name};

                OBS NAME
             ------ --------
                  2 THOMAS
                  4 JANE
                  9 BARBARA

To list AGE, HEIGHT, and WEIGHT, you can use the VAR clause with a matrix giving the variables, as in the following statements:

   > v={age height weight};
   > list point p var v;

              OBS       AGE    HEIGHT    WEIGHT
           ------ --------- --------- ---------
                2   11.0000   57.5000   85.0000
                4   12.0000   59.8000   84.5000
                9   13.0000   65.3000   98.0000

The VAR clause can be used with the following statements for the tasks described: