Delete rows and columns in SPSS usning Syntax

Question

I wish to extract particular rows and columns in SPSS sheet but I dont want to give the exact names, rather something like column 1 to 10 and row 1 to 30. Is there a syntax to do this?

Answer 1

For rows you could use a variable containig the casenumber:

compute casenum = $casenum. 
exe.
select if casenum > 30. 
exe.
delete variable casenum.

for the columns python is your friend. I dont know an in-built command for this at least.

begin program. 
import spss

start = 1
end = 5

killList = spss.GetVariableName(start-1) + " to " + spss.GetVariableName(end-1)

spss.Submit("delete variables {}".format(killList))
end program. 

this snippet will delete "columns" 1 to 5 (included). You can adjust the start and end by changing the respective values