ASSIGN

ASSIGN lets you assign a value to the contents of a variable or record/column location or to a new or existing variable or record/column location. The ASSIGN keyword is only required if it is preceded by IF logic in the Glossary.

The ASSIGN keyword is optional for the following syntaxes:

Syntax 1:

ASSIGN variable name = (value)

or

ASSIGN record/column:width = (value)

or

variable name = (value)

or

record/column:width = (value)

Syntax 2:

ASSIGN new variable name = original variable name

or

ASSIGN new record/column:width = original record/column: width

or

new variable name = original variable name

or

new record/column:width = original record/column: width

Abbreviation: ASS

Usage:

One use of ASSIGN is to copy a value to a new variable or record/column location. For example, if you want to recode a single-column value to a multi-column value, you first write an ASSIGN statement and then a RECODE statement.

You can also use ASSIGN to assign a value to an existing variable or record/column location, copy a value from one variable or record/column location to another and to create a new value based on a condition.

ASSIGN will overwrite the original value with the new value.

Important information:

• The new variable or record/column location is written on the left of the equal sign.
• You can use the Repeat (R) feature with ASSIGN.

• You can use IF logic with ASSIGN. When using IF, the ASSIGN keyword is required. For example: IF GENDER (1) ASSIGN WEIGHT = (1.42857)
• You can use ASSIGN with indexed variables; see the description of the INDEX instruction.

ASSIGN examples

Related topics:

Glossary Variables