The syntax editor lets you write and edit . It helps you to write syntactically correct commands before submitting it for execution. goal is to write commands that are correct before submitting a command. However this does not apply to transformation commands using logical or algebraic expression, i.e. at the end this feature while useful to some users is not entirely satisfying.

The syntax screen has three sections

• To the left a list that contains the commands that are found in the syntax window; it can be used to quickly navigate to a particular command in a window containing many commands.
• A small middle section (gutter) containing line numbers, as well as a pointer to the current command and brackets to show the extent of a command if you are using more than a single line for it.
• A pane that contains the actual commands to be executed (this was the only pane in older versions).

SPSS offers syntax highlighting, commands are distinctively coloured, commands in error (or not yet complete) appear in red.

As soon as you start typing, a drop down list is show with possible commands: in the example here after typing the letter "C" all commands starting with C are presented. Here we select CROSSTABS.

After entering the commands typing the first letter of the TABLES keyword again a list of possible keywords pop up.

Note that this might be confusing, assume that you would like to type CROSSTABS M1 BY M2. when typing the M of M1, SPSS offers the METHOD keyword; of course you can simple ignore the popup and continue typing.

This example shows the list of possible statistics you might select.

Options are available to adapt the syntax editor to your needs, e.g. if you do not like the automatic command completion feature you can turn it off