A.5.4 Dimensions

Quite often in configuration it is necessary to specify a length or a size. PSPP uses a common syntax for all such, calling them collectively by the name dimensions.

• You can specify dimensions in decimal form (‘12.5’) or as fractions, either as mixed numbers (‘12-1/2’) or raw fractions (‘25/2’).
• A number of different units are available. These are suffixed to the numeric part of the dimension. There must be no spaces between the number and the unit. The available units are identical to those offered by the popular typesetting system TeX:

  in

  inch (1 in = 2.54 cm)
  

  "

  inch (1 in = 2.54 cm)
  

  pt

  printer's point (1 in = 72.27 pt)
  

  pc

  pica (12 pt = 1 pc)
  

  bp

  PostScript point (1 in = 72 bp)
  

  cm

  centimeter
  

  mm

  millimeter (10 mm = 1 cm)
  

  dd

  didot point (1157 dd = 1238 pt)
  

  cc

  cicero (1 cc = 12 dd)
  

  sp

  scaled point (65536 sp = 1 pt)

• If no explicit unit is given, PSPP attempts to guess the best unit:
  • Numbers less than 50 are assumed to be in inches.
  • Numbers 50 or greater are assumed to be in millimeters.