title: Warning / Error when Importing a .sav
body: <p>I have two versions of SPSS at work. SPSS 11 running on Windows XP and SPSS 20 running on Linux. Both copies of SPSS work fine. Files created with either version of SPSS open without incident on the other version of SPSS. I.E. - I can create a .sav file with SPSS 20 on Linux and open it on SPSS 11 on Windows without incident.</p>
  
  <p>But, if I create a .sav file with SPSS 20 and import the data into either R or PSPP (on Linux), I get a bunch of warnings. The data appears to import correctly, but I am concerned by the warnings. I do not see any warning when importing a .sav from SPSS 11 or other .sav files I have been sent. Many of the analysts at my company use SPSS so I've gotten SPSS files from different versions of SPSS and I have never before seen this warning. The warning messages are nearly identical between PSPP and R which makes sense. AFAIK, they use the same underlying libs to import the data. This is the R error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Warning messages:
  1: In read.spss("test.sav") :
  test.sav: File-indicated value is different from internal value for at least one of  the three system values.  SYSMIS: indicated -1.79769e+308, expected -1.79769e+308; HIGHEST: 1.79769e+308, 1.79769e+308; LOWEST: -1.79769e+308, -1.79769e+308   
  
  2: In read.spss("test.sav") :
  test.sav: Unrecognized record type 7, subtype 18 encountered in system file
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The .sav file is really simple. It has two columns, dumb and dumber. Both are integers. The first two contains two values of 1.0. The second row contains two values of 2.0. I can provide the file on request (I don't see any way to upload it to SO). If anyone would like to see the actual file, PM me and I'll send it to you.</p>
  
  <pre><code>dumb  dumber
  1.0   1.0
  2.0   2.0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thoughts? Anyone know the best way to file a bug against R without getting roasted alive on the mailing list?  :-)</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: I used the term "Error" in the title line. I'll leave it, but I should not have used this word. The comments below are correct in pointing out that the messages I am seeing are warnings, not errors. I do however feel that this is made clear in the body of the question above. Clearly, the SPSS data format has changed over time and SPSS/IBM have failed to document these changes which is the root of the problem.</p>