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8.5 LEAVE

     LEAVE var_list.

LEAVE prevents the specified variables from being reinitialized whenever a new case is processed.

Normally, when a data file is processed, every variable in the active file is initialized to the system-missing value or spaces at the beginning of processing for each case. When a variable has been specified on LEAVE, this is not the case. Instead, that variable is initialized to 0 (not system-missing) or spaces for the first case. After that, it retains its value between cases.

This becomes useful for counters. For instance, in the example below the variable SUM maintains a running total of the values in the ITEM variable.

     DATA LIST /ITEM 1-3.
     COMPUTE SUM=SUM+ITEM.
     PRINT /ITEM SUM.
     LEAVE SUM
     BEGIN DATA.
     123
     404
     555
     999
     END DATA.

Partial output from this example:

     123   123.00
     404   527.00
     555  1082.00
     999  2081.00

It is best to use LEAVE command immediately before invoking a procedure command, because the left status of variables is reset by certain transformations—for instance, COMPUTE and IF. Left status is also reset by all procedure invocations.