How to Scale Variables to Have a Common Range

James Mott

Introduction

Sometimes it necessary for multiple categories in a variable to share a common, or unit, range.

A data set with a variable that has more than one category

The simplest way of creating a unit range is to:

Go to the Variables and Questions tab
Select the variables you want to recode
Click the Values button to edit the Value Attributes
Manually recode the Value of each category such that they have a common range.

Note: When variables take many values, it is generally easier to construct new variables, often using JavaScript