Importing Version 5.x SCL Programs to Statistica Visual Basic (Technical Notes)

This topic contains information that may be useful for users of the translation utility distributed with the current version of Statistica to help convert the 5.x generation Statistica Command Language programs (SCL) to Statistica Visual Basic.

Correctness of syntax
The SCL import facility will help to transform SCL programs into SVB programs that can be executed in the current version of Statistica. The correctness of the source (SCL) programs is very important; a program that causes a syntax or run-time error when executed in version 5 will also produce an error during the process of importing. The common problems will be encountered in cases when:
  • A file used in the SCL script does not exist (or will not be created in the process, e.g., in one of Data Management operations); in such cases, the SCL importer will issue an error message "Declared file does not exist" and abort the translation process;
  • Variable names or text value labels from a particular data file are used in the SCL program. If that data file is not specifically selected for analysis (either loaded as an active data set or specified in the "FILE" command), SCL importer in the current version will not be able to verify the correctness of the respective text strings and will consequently abort the translation process.
Untranslatable functions
The SCL import facility translates version 5.x SCL scripts into SVB macros similar to those that would result when creating a macro from an analysis. However, some analyses may have changed between version 5.x and the current version, and certain options are no longer available. In such cases, the resulting SVB program may contain a respective warning describing the problem, in the form of an SVB comment.
Accessible modules
The translation utility can be used to convert SCL scripts written to drive a representative selection of the most often used Statistica modules, including:
Data Management
Basic Statistics
Nonparametric Statistics & Distribution Fitting
Multiple Regression
Nonlinear Estimation
Process Analysis
Cluster Analysis
Log-linear Analysis
Factor Analysis
Reliability and Item Analysis
General ANOVA/MANOVA
Note: The ANOVA/MANOVA module has been enabled for limited translation due to a fundamental change in the way the analysis works. When importing an SCL script containing ANOVA/MANOVA commands to SVB, you need to carefully review the resulting macro and make modifications.
Global Options
The following Global Options available in SCL are supported and will be recognized by the translation utility:  
Input file
Output Options
Note: The translation of output options will be limited due to different handling of output in the current version of Statistica. If you specify any output destination other than "OFF" for either graphs or spreadsheets, all output will be directed to a single common report. From other output options, only the "OUTPUT" setting will be preserved.  
Selection Conditions (except when accessing them from a file)
Specifying a Weight Variable (except Weighted Moments for some analyses)
Note: the following commands will not be translated during import:  
Save Graph
Save Scrollsheet
Job Header Specification