+
+A @code{value} boils down to a number or a string. There are several
+possibilities, which one can distinguish by the first nonzero byte in
+the encoding:
+
+@table @code
+@item 01
+The numeric value @code{x}, presented to the user formatted according
+to @code{format}, which is in the format described for system files.
+@xref{System File Output Formats}, for details. Most commonly
+@code{format} has width 40 (the maximum).
+
+An @code{x} with the maximum negative double @code{-DBL_MAX}
+represents the system-missing value SYSMIS. (HIGHEST and LOWEST have
+not been observed.) @xref{System File Format}, for more about these
+special values.
+
+@item 02
+Similar to @code{01}, with the additional information that @code{x} is
+a value of variable @code{varname} and has value label @code{vallab}.
+Both @code{varname} and @code{vallab} can be the empty string, the
+latter very commonly.
+
+The meaning of the final byte is unknown. Possibly it is connected to
+whether the value or the label should be displayed.
+
+@item 03
+A text string, in two forms: @code{c} is in English, and sometimes
+abbreviated or obscure, and @code{local} is localized to the user's
+locale. In an English-language locale, the two strings are often the
+same, and in the cases where they differ, @code{local} is more
+appropriate for a user interface, e.g.@: @code{c} of ``Not a PxP table
+for MCN...'' versus @code{local} of ``Computed only for a PxP table,
+where P must be greater than 1.''
+
+@code{c} and @code{local} are always either both empty or both
+nonempty.
+
+@code{id} is a brief identifying string whose form seems to resemble a
+programming language identifier, e.g.@: @code{cumulative_percent} or
+@code{factor_14}. It is not unique.
+
+@code{type} is 00 for text taken from user input, such as syntax
+fragment, expressions, file names, data set names, and 01 for fixed
+text strings such as names of procedures or statistics. In the former
+case, @code{id} is always the empty string; in the latter case,
+@code{id} is still sometimes empty.
+
+@item 04
+The string value @code{s}, presented to the user formatted according
+to @code{format}. The format for a string is not too interesting, and
+clearly invalid formats like A16.39 or A255.127 or A134.1 abound in
+the corpus, so readers should probably ignore the format entirely.
+
+@code{s} is a value of variable @code{varname} and has value label
+@code{vallab}. @code{varname} is never empty but @code{vallab} is
+commonly empty.
+
+The meaning of the final byte is unknown.
+
+@item 05
+Variable @code{varname}, which is rarely observed as empty in the
+corpus, with variable label @code{varlabel}, which is often empty.
+
+The meaning of the final byte is unknown.
+@end itemize