Open an SPSS .sav file without SPSS SAV
The data view and the variable view of a .sav or .zsav file, read in this tab: every case, every variable's name, label, type, value labels and missing values, and how many cases there are.
The file
What is in it
Notes saved with the file
Saved files hold codes or value labels, as the grid shows them. Underlined values are missing values as the file defines them.
How it works
SAV follows the format as the PSPP project documents it, so it reads compressed and .zsav files, either byte order, older code pages as well as UTF-8, and text over 255 characters. Tick one box and the value labels replace the codes. Nothing is uploaded, and the file is not changed.
What it reads, and what it does not
A .sav file holds two things: a dictionary describing every variable, and the cases. SAV reads both, from the description of the format the PSPP project publishes, and shows them the way SPSS does: the cases in a grid, a hundred at a time, and the variables in a table with their labels, types, value labels, missing values and measurement level. It reads uncompressed, compressed and zlib-compressed (.zsav) files, from big- and little-endian machines, in UTF-8 or an older code page, with text longer than 255 characters.
It is read only. It does not edit the data, write a .sav, or run any analysis, and it does not open password-protected .sav files, portable .por files, or Stata and SAS files. Multiple response sets and custom attributes are skipped. The whole file is read into the tab's memory, so a very large one needs a computer rather than a phone.
Saving the data as CSV or as an Excel workbook, with the variable view on a sheet of its own, is part of OBSCURA Pro. To test what is in it, T-TEST, CHI-SQUARE and ALPHA take columns pasted from the grid.
Doing this often? OBSCURA Research opens the same .sav files to edit and analyse: t-tests, ANOVA, regression and factor analysis, with APA tables, and writes a .sav that SPSS opens. On its own, US$2 a month; with everything else, US$5 a month or US$48 a year. 7 days free.