I'm importing a very large dataset into SPSS. Many fields in the dataset contain a "999" value, indicating a missing value. I want to instruct SPSS to view them as such. However, default each variable in SPSS is set to having "no missing values". In variable view, you have to define "999" as being the "discrete missing value" for each variable. With hundreds of variables though, this is a lot of work:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NJUlu.png)

Therefore: is there a way to define "discrete missing value 999" as the default missing value for each variable on import? This would save me a lot of work, but I cannot find the answer online (I only get tutorials as to how define 999 as the missing value for each variable seperately, as I am doing now).

Your help is be greatly appreciated!

**Edit** Now that I think about it: I can easily replace each "999" in the dataset by an empty cell. Aren't empty cells considered missing values by SPSS?