A text variable stores one text value for each case. For example, a text variable may store the responses to an open-ended question. This is a question that asks respondents to answer a question in their own words. For example:

Before analyzing the responses to an open-ended question, market researchers frequently code the responses into categories. For example, the responses to this question could be coded into the following categories:

A variable that stores the coded responses to an open-ended question is called a coding variable and like the Other Specify variables we learnt about in Categorical variables, the coding variable, is generally associated with the main text variable as a helper variable.