When you consider Year 2000 as it applies to SPSS, you have to consider both SPSS itself and your own methodologies. The program SPSS is expected to be Y2K compliant, in that it will continue to run after January 1, 2000. (You can check SPSS Inc.'s Year 2000 web site for the latest product news and information.) For most users, the main issue will be data and procedure compliance.

First of all, you should investigate how years are stored in your data. Ideally, they should all use four digits. If they do not, there must be a unique rule for determining which century they fall in. This may require talking to any agencies that supply you with data to determine what standards they use.

Second, you should see how your program handles year data. Do you use SPSS's date formats? If you do not, you must make any and all corrections to date computations yourself. Be especially watchful for two-digit years stored as numeric variables, which are then used for determining lengths of time or comparisons.

If you do use SPSS's date formats, you should make sure that you know how SPSS is interpreting your data. By default, a two digit year that is read in with the SPSS date format is assumed to be in the 1900s. This default can be changed in versions 8.0 and 9.0 for Windows by going to the "Edit" menu, then "Options" and choosing the "Data" tab. In versions 7.5 and earlier, including the version on bama, this default cannot be changed. (UPDATE: It now can be changed on bama.) An example of SPSS date format treatment on bama is available.

You are responsible for the integrity of your own projects and data. If you are beginning a project now, you should make sure that you use four-digit years whenever possible. However, if you have an older project with legacy data, you need to start immediately making sure that data from the new century does not lead to erroroneous results.