Week 5 Dated 16

th
March 2014
Differences between EXCEL and SPSS
Below are some differences between EXCEL and SPSS:

EXCEL SPSS
1. Microsoft owned. 30 40 years already.
HELP menu is very helpful. Intel processor
Pentium 486. RAM 16Mbytes. CD ROM
installer. But now readymade. Package.
2. SPSS company in USA. 30 years old.
Incorporating HELP option for first time
users. Processor Pentium speed
233Mhertz.RAM 64Mbytes and more. CD
ROM to install. Must buy SPSS from
licensed dealer.
3. Direct mode/ calculator using = sign
4. Format data decimal points etc etc.
5. No calculator direct mode entry
6. Enter data in columns, manipulate data
according to objectives
7. Enter data data view but need to declare
type of fields variable view.
8. Can be programmed. This is called macro.
Using what-if conditions. Case Study:
Put 7 subjects PMR. There are 35
students. You can write a macro EXCEL to
process the data i.e. find the total,
average marks and sort out the students
from the highest to the lowest average.
9. Specify what you want example
descriptive, explore, regression, reliability..
all under Analyze mode
10. Graph quite crude 11. Neat graph provided the data and
instructions are very clear
12. Graph needs to manipulate the legends
etc etc according to the users specification
13. Can modify the graph by using the
legends/ labels. Declare the x and y axis
carefully. Sometimes BM can be used as
titles too. In variable view do something
on the Label option
14. Type of tests. One independent test; two-
tailed test. ANOVA. Post-hoc test.
Significant values p<0.05 very significant.
15. Quite good output display. 16. Very intelligent data output if the user
correctly spell out what he wanted in the
first place.
17. Free of Charge 18. Licensed software
19. Excel environment plenty of rows and
columns. Can be split and merged
according to our needs. Good for fast
work among engineers , managers and
presentation work Power Point. Therefore
most engineers know how to use EXCEL
comfortably.
20. Most engineering journals and IT journals
21. Not meant for novice. GIGO. Must be
trained properly so that the output is of
very useful value.
Popular among post graduate students in
FPTV, UTHM and FP, UTM.
22. Most social science papers and journals
used SPSS for analysis parts.
used EXCEL for quick analysis part.

Finally you can type data using EXCEL format and transfer the data into SPSS mode provided your fields
in EXCEL and SPSS are compatible.
References:
Purbayu Budi Santosa dan Ashari, SE. (2005). Analisis Statistik dengan Microsoft Excel & SPSS.
Yogyakarta: Andi
BASIC SPSS Course Manual. Bukit Kiara: SPSS Kuala Lumpur