 Here is an example dataset in SPSS. This is a British Social Attitude Survey from 2013 from the UK Data Service. Each column represents a variable or question. Each row represents an observation or reading or result. These data are recorded as numbers wherever possible, even though they appear as words. You can toggle between the displays by clicking on View Value Labels in the menu and you'll see words change into numbers. You can change back in the same way. The bottom left of the Data Editor window has two tabs, Data View and Variable View. If we change to Variable View, we'll see behind the scenes. This is metadata.