Irfan Ahmed, PhD

Compute The Compute procedure allows the analyst to perform mathematical operations on variables. This can be useful for several reasons. You might want to transform a variable to make its distribution more normal, or to make its relationship to another variable more linear. You also might want to create a variable that represents the average of other variables in the data set. You should use Compute whenever you want to assign the value of one variable to be a mathematical function of other variables in the data set. To perform this type of a transformation . Choose Transform then Goto Compute. . Type the name of the new variable in the target variable box. If you .   type in the name of a variable that already exists, the transformed values will replace the existing values. . Type the formula representing what the value of the target variable should be in the numeric expression box. . Click the OK button . The screen that opens up when you choose the Compute procedure has thr...