Yes, it would.
But in my opinion LS shouldn't get lost in fulfilling each single wish, but instead concentrate on the real important things: Developping and adding features which are requested for a long time, like loops or dynamic lists or a better system to group questions on a page.
Your problem can be easily solved by a few lines added to the syntax file of SPSS.
1. restructure to categorical:
STRING #tmpstr(A200).
COMPUTE #tmpstr = Q1.
COMPUTE #tmpstr = CONCAT(#tmpstr,",").
* here max number of items, example 20
VECTOR Q2(20,f4).
LOOP #i = 1 to 20.
- COMPUTE #dash = CHAR.INDEX(#tmpstr,",").
- COMPUTE Q2(#i) = NUMBER(CHAR.SUBSTR(#tmpstr,1,#dash-1),f10).
- COMPUTE #tmpstr = CHAR.SUBSTR(#tmpstr,#dash+1).
END LOOP.
EXECUTE.
2. to binary
STRING #tmpstr(A200).
COMPUTE #tmpstr = Q1.
COMPUTE #tmpstr = CONCAT(#tmpstr,",").
* here max number of items, example 20
VECTOR Q2_(20,f2).
LOOP #i = 1 to 20.
- COMPUTE #dash = CHAR.INDEX(#tmpstr,",").
- COMPUTE #w = NUMBER(CHAR.SUBSTR(#tmpstr,1,#dash-1),f10).
- COMPUTE Q2_(#w) =1.
- COMPUTE #tmpstr = CHAR.SUBSTR(#tmpstr,#dash+1).
END LOOP.
EXECUTE.
Or an EXCEL macro with the same logic.
But of course, if Tony will create a question theme for it, just better.
Joffm