What is a keyed table?
SPSS 16.0 and later – There are two basic characteristics for a keyed table: • A keyed table has to have unique cases based on the key variable(s). • A keyed table doesn’t contribute cases to the merged file. It contributes variables only. A keyed table file is also called a table lookup file. And it might help if you think of a keyed table as a dictionary with definitions for words. It can be a comprehensive dictionary with definitions for all of the words, but it doesn’t have to be (so the larger data file is not necessarily the keyed table file). In the dictionary, there is one entry for each word with its definition. When you merge files, you’re adding definitions to all of the words that are also in the other file. Words that are in the dictionary but not in the other file are not added to the merged file.
