floating-point format in use, as well as the endianness of IEEE 754
floating-point numbers, and translates as needed. However, only IEEE
754 numbers with the same endianness as integer data in the same file
-has actually been observed in system files, and it is likely that
+have actually been observed in system files, and it is likely that
other formats are obsolete or were never used.
System files use a few floating point values for special purposes:
possible to artificially synthesize files that use different encodings
(@pxref{Character Encoding Record}).
-System files are divided into records, each of which begins with a
-4-byte record type, usually regarded as an @code{int32}.
+@menu
+* System File Record Structure::
+* File Header Record::
+* Variable Record::
+* Value Labels Records::
+* Document Record::
+* Machine Integer Info Record::
+* Machine Floating-Point Info Record::
+* Multiple Response Sets Records::
+* Extra Product Info Record::
+* Variable Display Parameter Record::
+* Long Variable Names Record::
+* Very Long String Record::
+* Character Encoding Record::
+* Long String Value Labels Record::
+* Long String Missing Values Record::
+* Data File and Variable Attributes Records::
+* Extended Number of Cases Record::
+* Other Informational Records::
+* Dictionary Termination Record::
+* Data Record::
+@end menu
+
+@node System File Record Structure
+@section System File Record Structure
+
+System files are divided into records with the following format:
+
+@example
+int32 type;
+char data[];
+@end example
+
+This header does not identify the length of the @code{data} or any
+information about what it contains, so the system file reader must
+understand the format of @code{data} based on @code{type}. However,
+records with type 7, called @dfn{extension records}, have a stricter
+format:
+
+@example
+int32 type;
+int32 subtype;
+int32 size;
+int32 count;
+char data[size * count];
+@end example
+
+@table @code
+@item int32 rec_type;
+Record type. Always set to 7.
+
+@item int32 subtype;
+Record subtype. This value identifies a particular kind of extension
+record.
+
+@item int32 size;
+The size of each piece of data that follows the header, in bytes.
+Known extension records use 1, 4, or 8, for @code{char}, @code{int32},
+and @code{flt64} format data, respectively.
+
+@item int32 count;
+The number of pieces of data that follow the header.
+
+@item char data[size * count];
+Data, whose format and interpretation depend on the subtype.
+@end table
-The records must appear in the following order:
+An extension record contains exactly @code{size * count} bytes of
+data, which allows a reader that does not understand an extension
+record to skip it. Extension records provide only nonessential
+information, so this allows for files written by newer software to
+preserve backward compatibility with older or less capable readers.
+
+Records in a system file must appear in the following order:
@itemize @bullet
@item
Extension (type 7) records, in ascending numerical order of their
subtypes.
+System files written by SPSS include at most one of each kind of
+extension record. This is generally true of system files written by
+other software as well, with known exceptions noted below in the
+individual sections about each type of record.
+
@item
Dictionary termination record.
Data record.
@end itemize
-Each type of record is described separately below.
+We advise authors of programs that read system files to tolerate
+format variations. Various kinds of misformatting and corruption have
+been observed in system files written by SPSS and other software
+alike. In particular, because extension records provide nonessential
+information, it is generally better to ignore an extension record
+entirely than to refuse to read a system file.
-@menu
-* File Header Record::
-* Variable Record::
-* Value Labels Records::
-* Document Record::
-* Machine Integer Info Record::
-* Machine Floating-Point Info Record::
-* Multiple Response Sets Records::
-* Extra Product Info Record::
-* Variable Display Parameter Record::
-* Long Variable Names Record::
-* Very Long String Record::
-* Character Encoding Record::
-* Long String Value Labels Record::
-* Long String Missing Values Record::
-* Data File and Variable Attributes Records::
-* Extended Number of Cases Record::
-* Miscellaneous Informational Records::
-* Dictionary Termination Record::
-* Data Record::
-@end menu
+The following sections describe the known kinds of records.
@node File Header Record
@section File Header Record
-The file header is always the first record in the file. It has the
-following format:
+A system file begins with the file header, with the following format:
@example
char rec_type[4];
files written by some systems set this value to -1. In general, it is
unsafe for systems reading system files to rely upon this value.
-@item int32 compressed;
+@item int32 compression;
Set to 0 if the data in the file is not compressed, 1 if the data is
compressed with simple bytecode compression, 2 if the data is ZLIB
compressed. This field has value 2 if and only if @code{rec_type} is
by a number of narrower string variables. @xref{Very Long String
Record}, for details.
+A system file should contain at least one variable and thus at least
+one variable record, but system files have been observed in the wild
+without any variables (thus, no data either).
+
@example
int32 rec_type;
int32 type;
(@samp{#}), dollar signs (@samp{$}), underscores (@samp{_}), or full
stops (@samp{.}). The variable name is padded on the right with spaces.
+The @samp{name} fields should be unique within a system file. System
+files written by SPSS that contain very long string variables with
+similar names sometimes contain duplicate names that are later
+eliminated by resolving the very long string names (@pxref{Very Long
+String Record}). PSPP handles duplicates by assigning them new,
+unique names.
+
@item int32 label_len;
This field is present only if @code{has_var_label} is set to 1. It is
set to the length, in characters, of the variable label. The
documented maximum length varies from 120 to 255 based on SPSS
version, but some files have been seen with longer labels. PSPP
-accepts longer labels and truncates them to 255 bytes on input.
+accepts labels of any length.
@item char label[];
This field is present only if @code{has_var_label} is set to 1. It has
element denotes the additional discrete missing value.
@end table
+@anchor{System File Output Formats}
The @code{print} and @code{write} members of sysfile_variable are output
formats coded into @code{int32} types. The least-significant byte
of the @code{int32} represents the number of decimal places, and the
Record type. Always set to 6.
@item int32 n_lines;
-Number of lines of documents present.
+Number of lines of documents present. This should be greater than
+zero, but the system file writer that identifies itself as
+@url{https://github.com/WizardMac/ReadStat} writes document records
+with zero @code{n_lines}.
@item char lines[][80];
Document lines. The number of elements is defined by @code{n_lines}.
Number of pieces of data in the data part. Always set to 3.
@item flt64 sysmis;
-The system missing value.
-
-@item flt64 highest;
-The value used for HIGHEST in missing values.
-
-@item flt64 lowest;
-The value used for LOWEST in missing values.
+@itemx flt64 highest;
+@itemx flt64 lowest;
+The system missing value, the value used for HIGHEST in missing
+values, and the value used for LOWEST in missing values, respectively.
+@xref{System File Format}, for more information.
+
+The SPSSWriter library in PHP, which identifies itself as @code{FOM
+SPSS 1.0.0} in the file header record @code{prod_name} field, writes
+unexpected values to these fields, but it uses the same values
+consistently throughout the rest of the file.
@end table
@node Multiple Response Sets Records
The total number of bytes in @code{mrsets}.
@item char mrsets[];
-A series of multiple response sets, each of which consists of the
-following:
+Zero or more line feeds (byte 0x0a), followed by a series of multiple
+response sets, each of which consists of the following:
@itemize @bullet
@item
The short names of the variables in the set, converted to lowercase,
each separated from the previous by a single space.
+Even though a multiple response set must have at least two variables,
+some system files contain multiple response sets with no variables or
+one variable. The source and meaning of these multiple response sets is
+unknown. (Perhaps they arise from creating a multiple response set
+then deleting all the variables that it contains?)
+
@item
-A line feed (byte 0x0a).
+One line feed (byte 0x0a). Sometimes multiple, even hundreds, of line
+feeds are present.
@end itemize
@end table
@item char attributes[];
The attributes, in a text-based format.
-In record type 17, this field contains a single attribute set. An
+In record subtype 17, this field contains a single attribute set. An
attribute set is a sequence of one or more attributes concatenated
together. Each attribute consists of a name, which has the same
syntax as a variable name, followed by, inside parentheses, a sequence
an attribute with a single value and an attribute array with one
element.
-In record type 18, this field contains a sequence of one or more
+In record subtype 18, this field contains a sequence of one or more
variable attribute sets. If more than one variable attribute set is
present, each one after the first is delimited from the previous by
@code{/}. Each variable attribute set consists of a long
variable name,
followed by @code{:}, followed by an attribute set with the same
-syntax as on record type 17.
+syntax as on record subtype 17.
+
+System files written by @code{Stata 14.1/-savespss- 1.77 by
+S.Radyakin} may include multiple records with subtype 18, one per
+variable that has variable attributes.
The total length is @code{count} bytes.
@end table
will contain a variable attribute record with the following contents:
@example
-00000000 07 00 00 00 12 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 22 00 00 00 |............"...|
-00000010 64 75 6d 6d 79 3a 66 72 65 64 28 27 32 33 27 0a |dummy:fred('23'.|
-00000020 27 33 34 27 0a 29 62 65 72 74 28 27 31 32 33 27 |'34'.)bert('123'|
-00000030 0a 29 |.) |
+0000 07 00 00 00 12 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 22 00 00 00 |............"...|
+0010 64 75 6d 6d 79 3a 66 72 65 64 28 27 32 33 27 0a |dummy:fred('23'.|
+0020 27 33 34 27 0a 29 62 65 72 74 28 27 31 32 33 27 |'34'.)bert('123'|
+0030 0a 29 |.) |
@end example
@menu
not been observed in the wild.
@end table
-@node Miscellaneous Informational Records
-@section Miscellaneous Informational Records
+@node Other Informational Records
+@section Other Informational Records
-Some specific types of miscellaneous informational records are
+This chapter documents many specific types of extension records are
documented here, but others are known to exist. PSPP ignores unknown
-miscellaneous informational records when reading system files.
-
-@example
-/* @r{Header.} */
-int32 rec_type;
-int32 subtype;
-int32 size;
-int32 count;
-
-/* @r{Exactly @code{size * count} bytes of data.} */
-char data[];
-@end example
+extension records when reading system files.
-@table @code
-@item int32 rec_type;
-Record type. Always set to 7.
+The following extension record subtypes have also been observed, with
+the following believed meanings:
-@item int32 subtype;
-Record subtype. May take any value. According to Aapi
-H@"am@"al@"ainen, value 5 indicates a set of grouped variables and 6
-indicates date info (probably related to USE). Subtype 24 appears to
-contain XML that describes how data in the file should be displayed
-on-screen.
+@table @asis
+@item 5
+A set of grouped variables (according to Aapi H@"am@"al@"ainen).
-@item int32 size;
-Size of each piece of data in the data part. Should have the value 1,
-4, or 8, for @code{char}, @code{int32}, and @code{flt64} format data,
-respectively.
+@item 6
+Date info, probably related to USE (according to Aapi H@"am@"al@"ainen).
-@item int32 count;
-Number of pieces of data in the data part.
+@item 12
+A UUID in the format described in RFC 4122. Only two examples
+observed, both written by SPSS 13, and in each case the UUID contained
+both upper and lower case.
-@item char data[];
-Arbitrary data. There must be @code{size} times @code{count} bytes of
-data.
+@item 24
+XML that describes how data in the file should be displayed on-screen.
@end table
@node Dictionary Termination Record
projects / pspp / blobdiff