MySql to SPSS via ODBC- cannot retrieve strings

Question

I am using MySQL 5.6, SPSS 22 and ODBC GUI with Actual ODBC Pack (for Mac OS X) 3.2.1 on Mavericks OS.

I am able to connect to the database, select the table and even the fields . The table has about 20 string variables and 10 numeric. All looks normal as I go through each step.

When I retrieve the data into SPSS, all the numeric variables import fine. The strings are a garbled mess. (See attachment). However, you can see on the variable view, all the string variables names are fine.

I rebooted and restarted both Mysql and SPSS and got the same results.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

It is an encoding issue. In SPSS, without a data set loaded, go to Edit > Options > Language and change the character encoding for data setting to Locale's writing system. Then run your database query again.

Answer 2

I can't make out what the strings look like from the picture, but your description sounds like there is an encoding problem. Try changing the Unicode and locale settings (Edit > Options > Language) in Statistics or find out what the encoding is in the database and try to match that.