On Thu, Oct 8, 2026 at 8:07 AM Arve Eriksson via PSPP user discussion < [email protected]> wrote:
> I'm having a go at translating PSPP, and there are some PSPP-specific > terms I struggle with. Can someone explain what 'system-missing' and > 'user-missing' values are? > Thanks a lot for helping to translate PSPP! The PSPP manual explains the two kinds of missing values at https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/manual/html_node/Missing-Observations.html. Here's what it says there: > > PSPP includes special support for unknown numeric data values. Missing > observations are assigned a special value, called the *system-missing > value*. This “value” actually indicates the absence of a value; it means > that the actual value is unknown. Procedures automatically exclude from > analyses those observations or cases that have missing values. Details of > missing value exclusion depend on the procedure and can often be controlled > by the user; refer to descriptions of individual procedures for details. The system-missing value exists only for numeric variables. String > variables always have a defined value, even if it is only a string of > spaces. Variables, whether numeric or string, can have designated *user-missing > values*. Every user-missing value is an actual value for that variable. > However, most of the time user-missing values are treated in the same way > as the system-missing value If you follow the link above, there are further links to more information.
