*(Q) How to have a "global variable". >What I want to do is have some variable, say MYNUMBER, that I change within >the syntax. What I want is to say at the beginning of the syntax that >MYNUMBER=83, and then throughout the rest of the syntax, refer to only >MYNUMBER (but meaning 83). And in the future, if I want to change MYNUMBER >to, say, 104, I can do it just once at the beginning of the syntax, because >everywhere else in the syntax where I need the variable *(A) Posted to SPSS newsgroup on 2002/03/25 by Raynald Levesque. * The best method is to use a macro. * For instance. DEFINE mynumber()83!ENDDEFINE. GET FILE='c:\\program files\\spss\\employee data.sav'. COMPUTE sal=salary*mynumber. *************. * Additional comments: Using a temporary variable such as COMPUTE #mynumb=83. does not work because temporary variables cease to exist as soon as a procedure or an EXECUTE is encountered. Using a regular variable COMPUTE mynumber=83. works only with the current data file. If you load a new sav file you loose your variable. There are ways to keep it by saving it in a file and merging that file with the new data file but this is much more cumbersome than using a macro.