SPSS Syntax File (.SPS)

SPSS Syntax Files are files that contain instructions for creating a data file, are written in the SPSS Syntax Language, and typically have a file extension of .SPS.

In theory, these files contain all the information that is in an SPSS Data File. In practice this file format should be avoided as:

• Very few programs can read it. SPSS Statistics can read it. Q can read it sometimes. PSPP can read it sometimes. 
• It is quite common that files written in this format have errors and cannot be read.
• When there are difficulties reading the file format, it's typical that nobody can easily rectify the problem.