### 15.1 DESCRIPTIVES

         DESCRIPTIVES
                 /VARIABLES=var_list
                 /MISSING={VARIABLE,LISTWISE} {INCLUDE,NOINCLUDE}
                 /FORMAT={LABELS,NOLABELS} {NOINDEX,INDEX} {LINE,SERIAL}
                 /SAVE
                 /STATISTICS={ALL,MEAN,SEMEAN,STDDEV,VARIANCE,KURTOSIS,
                              SKEWNESS,RANGE,MINIMUM,MAXIMUM,SUM,DEFAULT,
                              SESKEWNESS,SEKURTOSIS}
                 /SORT={NONE,MEAN,SEMEAN,STDDEV,VARIANCE,KURTOSIS,SKEWNESS,
                        RANGE,MINIMUM,MAXIMUM,SUM,SESKEWNESS,SEKURTOSIS,NAME}
                       {A,D}

The `DESCRIPTIVES` procedure reads the active dataset and outputs descriptive statistics requested by the user. In addition, it can optionally compute Z-scores.

The `VARIABLES` subcommand, which is required, specifies the list of variables to be analyzed. Keyword `VARIABLES` is optional.

All other subcommands are optional:

The `MISSING` subcommand determines the handling of missing variables. If `INCLUDE` is set, then user-missing values are included in the calculations. If `NOINCLUDE` is set, which is the default, user-missing values are excluded. If `VARIABLE` is set, then missing values are excluded on a variable by variable basis; if `LISTWISE` is set, then the entire case is excluded whenever any value in that case has a system-missing or, if `INCLUDE` is set, user-missing value.

The `FORMAT` subcommand affects the output format. Currently the `LABELS/NOLABELS` and `NOINDEX/INDEX` settings are not used. When `SERIAL` is set, both valid and missing number of cases are listed in the output; when `NOSERIAL` is set, only valid cases are listed.

The `SAVE` subcommand causes `DESCRIPTIVES` to calculate Z scores for all the specified variables. The Z scores are saved to new variables. Variable names are generated by trying first the original variable name with Z prepended and truncated to a maximum of 8 characters, then the names ZSC000 through ZSC999, STDZ00 through STDZ09, ZZZZ00 through ZZZZ09, ZQZQ00 through ZQZQ09, in that sequence. In addition, Z score variable names can be specified explicitly on `VARIABLES` in the variable list by enclosing them in parentheses after each variable.

The `STATISTICS` subcommand specifies the statistics to be displayed:

`ALL`
  All of the statistics below.
`MEAN`
  Arithmetic mean.
`SEMEAN`
  Standard error of the mean.
`STDDEV`
  Standard deviation.
`VARIANCE`
  Variance.
`KURTOSIS`
  Kurtosis and standard error of the kurtosis.
`SKEWNESS`
  Skewness and standard error of the skewness.
`RANGE`
  Range.
`MINIMUM`
  Minimum value.
`MAXIMUM`
  Maximum value.
`SUM`
  Sum.
`DEFAULT`
  Mean, standard deviation of the mean, minimum, maximum.
`SEKURTOSIS`
  Standard error of the kurtosis.
`SESKEWNESS`
  Standard error of the skewness.

The `SORT` subcommand specifies how the statistics should be sorted. Most of the possible values should be self-explanatory. `NAME` causes the statistics to be sorted by name. By default, the statistics are listed in the order that they are specified on the `VARIABLES` subcommand. The `A` and `D` settings request an ascending or descending sort order, respectively.