Release Notes -- IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0

Content

Release notes - IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0

IBM® SPSS® Statistics 21.0 is available.

Contents

• Description
• System requirements and installation
• Known issues

Description

IBM SPSS Statistics is the world’s leading statistical software used to solve business and research problems by means of ad-hoc analysis, hypothesis testing, and predictive analytics. Organizations use IBM SPSS Statistics to understand data, analyze trends, forecast and plan to validate assumptions and drive accurate conclusions.

System requirements and installation

For information on system requirements and installation, see the installation documents .

For information on downloading the product, see the Download Document .

Known issues

At time of publication, the following issues were known.

Data Access and Data Editor

Problem: If you encrypt a data or output file with a password and then change that file's attributes to read-only, you may have a problem opening that file in IBM SPSS Statistics.
Solution: Do not change the file attributes of encrypted files.

Problem: When using the Database Wizard with the Data Direct Teradata driver, you might not be able to complete all the steps in the Wizard. We have reported the problem to Data Direct, the developer of the driver.
Solution: Use the Teradata ODBC driver available from teradata.com.

Graphics

Problem: If you use the Map Conversion Utility to create a data set as an SPSS Statistics data file (.sav), the file can get saved as comma-separated (.csv) instead.
Solution: To avoid the problem, click the Browse button before you enter the name of the file.

Statistical Procedures

Problem: In the Simulation dialog boxes, commas do not work as expected when in a comma-delimited locale.
Solution: Use the English locale when you need to enter numbers in the Simulation user interface.

Problem: Simulation may fail to save user-entered correlations in the simulation plan (.splan).
Solution: When you enter correlations into the simulation plan, be sure to select the "Do not recalculate correlations when fitting" radio button before saving the plan.

Problem: When you use Simulation Builder to select a model file, the file may fail to open and the application may become unresponsive.
Solution: Check the permissions of the folder in which the model file is located. If that folder does not have write permission, you can correct the problem by moving the model file to a location that does have write permission. If you encounter this problem while following the steps in the "Using simulation to model treatment costs for diabetes" Case Study, copy diabetes_costs.xml from the Samples subdirectory to a writeable location.

Problem: If you run the newer Nonparametric tests procedure (NPTESTS), request a one-sample K-S test, and use the sample data to calculate the mean and standard deviation, the significance test for the K-S statistic is not calculated with the Lilliefors correction. It should be.
Solution: If possible, supply a custom (population) mean and standard deviation when requesting one-sample K-S tests from NPTESTS. If the population mean and standard deviation are not available, use the EXAMINE procedure. Select Analyze->Descriptive Statistics->Explore from the menus, click the Plots button and check "Normality plots with tests". That will run an EXAMINE command and K-S test with Lilliefors correction.

Problem: If you run the older Nonparametric tests procedure (NPAR TESTS), request a one-sample K-S test, and use the sample data to calculate the mean and standard deviation, the significance test for the K-S statistic is not calculated with the Lilliefors correction. It should be.
Solution: If possible, use syntax to specify the population mean and standard deviation for NPAR TESTS. If the population mean and standard deviation are not available, use the EXAMINE procedure. Select Analyze->Descriptive Statistics->Explore from the menus, click the Plots button and check "Normality plots with tests". That will run an EXAMINE command and K-S test with Lilliefors correction.

Problem: The Mallows CP statistics from the REGRESSION procedure can be incorrect when the user has mismatched variable lists on the METHOD and VARIABLES subcommands. This is a syntax-only problem.
Solution: To avoid the problem, make sure that all of the variables listed on the VARIABLES subcommand are also named in one or more METHOD subcommands.

Problem: Depending on the data and the requested model, running the PROXSCAL procedure while the user is connected to an SPSS Server running on zLinux or Red Hat, can cause the application to close suddenly. This can occur when a chart of the Common Space configuration is created.
Solution: If you encounter this problem add /PLOT=NONE to your PROXSCAL command. You will get your tabular output, but no charts.

Other

Problem: Export to PowerPoint may fail to create the exported file; or scripts may fail with an error message.
Solution: Close down your applications and reboot the system, or ask the administrator of your system to reboot it.

Problem: When using the Help Tutorials with Internet Explorer, the Back and Next buttons may not work as expected.
Solution: If you experience the problem, take these steps to manually add your computer to the internet zone:

1. Launch Statistics 21 and access the help. Internet Explorer should open automatically.
2. Click the gear icon and select Internet options.
3. Click the Security tab.
4. Click Local intranet and then Sites.
5. Click Advanced.
6. In the Add this website to the zone text box, the hostname of the computer should be displayed (not an IP address). Click Add. (You may have to uncheck the option for requiring https before the button is enabled).
7. Close and apply the changes in the open dialogs as needed.

Problem: When you launch the application on Windows, an hourglass may be displayed while the application launches.
Solution: You can use your computer to work in other applications while the hourglass is displayed. Use Alt+Tab to switch to another application.

Accessibility

Problem: On 64-bit Windows, the JAWS screen reader will not read text in the License Authorization Wizard.
Solution: To resolve the problem, restart your computer following these steps:

1. Ensure that JAWS 13 is installed on the computer.
2. While installing Statistics 21, select "Yes" to enable JAWS assistive technology. Then continue the installation as usual.
3. After the installation completes, restart your computer.
4. From the Windows Start menu, select All Programs->IBM SPSS Statistics->IBM SPSS Statistics 21 License Authorization Wizard.

Problem: Under some conditions, the Windows JAWS screen reader assistive technology may respond sluggishly or may not read at all.
Solution: The problem occurs when there is not enough memory (RAM) available on your computer. Do one of the following:

• If you can, install and run the application on a Windows 64-bit computer.
• If you can, install more RAM on your computer.
• Close all applications that you aren't using.
• Set a user environment variable that conserves memory.

You can set a user environment variable, ""SpssLoadHelpOnStartup"", that will allow you to control whether the Statistics Help system loads during the application launch.
If you set SpssLoadHelpOnStartup=0, the Statistics Help system will not load during launch, which causes the application to use less memory. If you find that you need to access the Help after you launch the application, you will be able to do that.
To create the user environment variable and set it:

1. Right-click on My Computer (or Computer), and select Properties from the context menu.
2. Click the Advanced tab (Windows XP) or Advanced System Settings (Windows Vista and Windows 7).
3. Click Environment Variables.
4. In the User variables group, click New to add a new environment variable or Edit to change the value of an existing variable.
5. Enter the variable name: SpssLoadhelpOnStartup.
6. Enter the variable value: 0

To reset back to the application default, set the value of the environment variable to 1.