Lookup Tables

Overview

Lookup tables are reference tables that may be used in the syntax expressions, for example in validation and enabling conditions. Lookup tables are prepared as external tab-delimited files and uploaded to the questionnaire in the Designer.

We use lookup tables to find content by some code and apply that content in validations and enabling conditions as part of larger expressions.

Lookup tables contain numeric data: the lookup code must be integer, while the content may be integer or a floating point value. Lookup tables are not suitable to store string content. The lookup code is often a code of an item in a price survey, occupational code in a labor force survey, or a code of crop in an agricultural survey. It may also be a combination code of two or more codes (for example a district code and a locality code).

Reusable Categories

Survey Solutions provides two question types that make use of categorical selections, which are the Single-Select Categorical and Multi-Select Categorical questions. Each of them allows the user to select from a list of categories with the difference of whether only one selection is allowed (single-select) or more than one selections (multi-select) are permitted. Each of these question types has multiple presentations, such as with choice buttons, or with a search option, etc (see Overview: Categorical question types).

Panel of Advanced Instruments

The panel of advanced instruments located at the left side of the questionnaire Designer interface provides access to the additional tools for configuring the questionnaire:

		Table of contents Displays a panel showing all the sections within the questionnaire.
		Questionnaire description and survey information Additional meta information about the questionnaire and the survey.
		Translations Manage translations in multilingual questionnaires. (more info)
		Reusable categories Add, edit, and delete sets of categories used in categorical questions. (more info)
		Scenarios Manage testing scenarios. (more info)
		Macros Define and describe syntax macros. (more info)
		Lookup tables Manage reference tables used for looking up values. (more info)
		Attachments Manage questionnaire attachments. (more info)
		Comments Review and navigate to comments in the questionnaire. (more info)
		Critical rules Define any critical rules that must be checked before submission of an interview based on this questionnaire. (more info)

Comments in Designer

Comments in Designer are an essential tool for collaboration of multiple users working on the same questionnaire. Each of the collaborators may leave comments to questions, indicating potential problems in implementation, or suggesting improvements. For example, It is common for the reviewers, that have a shared access to a questionnaire to leave the comments for the original author.

The full list of comments in all sections of the questionnaire can be seen in the comments tool, which is accessible from the toolbar. Often the comments represent a kind of to-do list:

Multilingual Questionnaires

This article describes composing multilingual questionnaires. For switching the language of the Survey Solutions software itself and supported languages refer to the localization overview article.

Often times researchers work in contexts where respondents of a survey speak different languages. Therefore, to administer surveys and collect higher quality data it is important to have questionnaires in the corresponding language. In Survey Solutions, you can create multilingual questionnaires directly in Designer as follows:

Macros

Macros simplify writing complicated expressions with repetitive sub-expressions. Consider for example, that several questions in the questionnaire are applicable to one group of persons, such as women of child-bearing age (let’s say 15-44 years old, exact numbers are of no particular importance here). Suppose the variable for age is age, and for gender is sex with values 1 corresponding to males, and 2 to females. Then the following macro can be defined:
 

Questionnaire Attachments

In some situations pictures become an indispensable tool to establish the true meaning of e.g. categories: small, medium, large. Pictures can be added to the questionnaire wherever a static text element is possible (including inside rosters and subsections). The same attachment can be displayed in multiple places in the questionnaire. Check the supported formats in Multimedia Reference.

To add an attachment (image) to your questionnaire:
 

1. Click on the paper clip icon on the toolbar on the left hand side.

   June 15, 2016