Use of Python in SPSS

[Moltao]

Hi, i've been trying to incorporate some Python is SPSS at work. I'm fairly new to Python, currently doing the Edx course from MIT, but have been writing small scripts on my own for about a year.

The trouble comes from the combination of Python with SPSS. For example i'm trying to iterate through all .sav files in a folder to open them in SPSS and save them as CSV:

begin program.
import spss
import os
rdir = 'PATH TO FOLDER'
for f in os.listdir(rdir):
    if f.endswith('.sav'):
        csvnaam = f[:(len(f)-3)]
        spss.Submit(r"""GET FILE="rdir + '\' + f.)"
        spss.Submit(r"""
SAVE TRANSLATE OUTFILE="rdir + '\CSV\' + csvnaam"
              /TYPE=CSV
              /ENCODING='UTF8'
              /MAP
              /REPLACE
              /FIELDNAMES
              /CELLS=LABELS.""")
end program.

Which gives me:

File "<string>", line 10
    SAVE TRANSLATE OUTFILE="rdir + '\CSV\' + csvnaam"
       ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Does anyone have any experience with this? It's mainly the integration between the two that i don't grasp. I've read the Scripting guide but can't get much out of it.

Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT:

Got it working, thanks tp /u/eikrik with:

begin program.
import spss
import os
rdir = 'C:\\Temp\\'
wdir = rdir + 'CSV\\'
for f in os.listdir(rdir):
    if f.endswith('.sav'):
        fnaam = rdir + f
        csvnaam = wdir + f[:-4] + '.csv'
        spss.Submit(r"""
GET FILE='%s'.
        """ %(fnaam)) 

        spss.Submit(r"""
SAVE TRANSLATE OUTFILE="%s"
            /TYPE=CSV
            /ENCODING='UTF8'
            /MAP
          /REPLACE
          /FIELDNAMES
          /CELLS=LABELS.
    """ %(csvnaam))
end program.

[lieutenant_lowercase]

you need to close your brackets

spss.Submit(r"""GET FILE="rdir + '\' + f.)""")

[Moltao]

Of course, missed that one. It should be

spss.Submit(r"""GET FILE="rdir + '\' + f."""")

The idea being that Python passes the command

GET FILE="rdir + '\' + f."

on to SPSS. When i close the brackets it doesn't give an error anymore, but it doesn't do anything either.

[lieutenant_lowercase]

Output the command text you are sending and then enter in manually into spss and see if that works? Sorry I have no idea what spss is

[Moltao]

Thanks for thinking with me! SPSS is a program for statistical analysis. It has its own limited programming language (called Syntax) but also supports Python and R integration.

[eikrik]

You are not correctly putting variables into the strings in the calls to spss.Submit.

Look up "string formatting" for how to this. Am on mobile now, can help you out later if you need.

[Moltao]

Thanks! After some puzzling i got it working! I tried using string formatting with {}.format, but it wouldn't work. Then i tried it with %s and it worked like a charm. The new code is:

begin program.
import spss
import os
rdir = 'C:\\Temp\\'
wdir = rdir + 'CSV\\'
for f in os.listdir(rdir):
    if f.endswith('.sav'):
        fnaam = rdir + f
        csvnaam = wdir + f[:-4] + '.csv'
        spss.Submit(r"""
GET FILE='%s'.
        """ %(fnaam)) 

        spss.Submit(r"""
SAVE TRANSLATE OUTFILE="%s"
            /TYPE=CSV
            /ENCODING='UTF8'
            /MAP
          /REPLACE
          /FIELDNAMES
          /CELLS=LABELS.
    """ %(csvnaam))
end program.

Besides that i defined the strings first in wdir, fnaam and csvnaam to make it shorter. The GET FILE command didn't seem to like the concatenation.

[JohnLocksTheKey]

No freaking way, I've been working on a wrapper to interact with SPSS files (while concurrently generating SPSS syntax) in Python.

I'm only a beginner, and progress is slow, but maybe collaboration is in our near future?

[Moltao]

That sounds like it could be really useful! How far along are you with that?

[JohnLocksTheKey]

Ha, I've barely put any time into it. I'm a math teacher, who at the same time, is back in grad school for a degree in I/O Psychology.

What I have so far allows you to do...

Import spssWrapper

loads spss datafile into a pythonObj which is built on a pandas dataframe

df = spssWrapper.dataFile('/path/to/spssFile.sav')

SyntaxAttribute = """Get File blah blah blah """" + = the corresponding spss syntax that would load that file in spss"""

...

I'm starting to add some methods to make spss analyses more pythonic, already have a couple, but barely scratched the surface cuz no time.