General Options¶

-O format

--output-format=format

Specifies the desired output format. format must be one of the extensions listed above, e.g. -O csv requests comma-separated value output.

-c maxcases

--cases=maxcases

By default, all cases are copied from input to output. Specifying this option to limit the number of cases written to output to maxcases.

-e charset

--encoding=charset

Overrides the encoding in which character strings in input are interpreted. This option is necessary because old SPSS system files do not self-identify their encoding.

-k var...

--keep=var...

Drops all variables except those listed as var, and reorders the remaining variables into the specified order.

-d var...

--drop=var...

Drops each var listed from the output.

CSV Output Options¶

These options affect only output to .csv and .txt files.

--labels

By default, pspp-convert writes variables' values to the output. With this option, pspp-convert writes value labels.

--no-var-names

By default, pspp-convert writes the variable names as the first line of output. With this option, pspp-convert omits this line.

--recode

By default, pspp-convert writes user-missing values as their regular values. With this option, pspp-convert recodes them to system-missing values (which are written as a single space).

--print-formats

By default, pspp-convert writes numeric variables as plain numbers. This option makes pspp-convert honor variables' print formats.

--decimal=decimal

This option sets the character used as a decimal point in output. The default is a period (.).

--delimiter=delimiter

This option sets the character used to separate fields in output. The default is a comma (,), unless the decimal point is a comma, in which case a semicolon (;) is used.

--qualifier=qualifier

The option sets the character used to quote fields that contain the delimiter. The default is a double quote (").

Password Options¶

When the input file is encrypted, pspp-convert needs to obtain a password to decrypt it. To do so, the user may specify the password with -p (or --password), or the name of a file containing a list of possible passwords with --password-list, or an alphabet of possible passwords to try along with a maximum length with -a (or --password-alphabet) and -l (or --password-length). If none of these options is used, pspp-convert prompts for the password. The password options are:

-p password

--password=password

Specifies the password to use to decrypt the input file.

On multiuser systems, this option may not be safe because other users may be able to see the password in process listings.

-a alphabet -l max-length

--password-alphabet=alphabet --password-length=max-length

These options are an alternative to -p or --password. They direct pspp-convert to search for the correct password from the set of all passwords of symbols from alphabet (which may contain character ranges specified with -) and no more than max-length symbols long. For example, -a a-z -l 5 checks all possible lowercase alphabetic passwords no more than 5 characters long.

When these options are used, -p may additionally specify a starting point for the search.

--password-list=file

Specifies a file to read containing a list of passwords to try, one per line. If file is -, reads from stdin.

Other Options¶

-h

--help

Prints a usage message on stdout and exits.

-v

--version

Prints version information on stdout and exits.