The .dau file

The .dau, or overflow, file holds responses to questions that need to be transcribed, coded, or checked. The responses can be in the form of text or the name of a source file that records the response: for example, the name of a .tiff file that contains a scanned image of a handwritten response.

The .dau file is similar to the .drs file created by Quancept. However, unlike the .drs file, which stores the responses to all questions, the .dau stores responses only to open-ended questions that will be transcribed or coded and numeric responses that need to be checked. Numeric responses are always in the form of the name of a source file that records the response.

The following table shows some of the open-ended questions in the museum example questionnaire:

Name	Question text
foundwa	How did you find your way around the museum?
signshw	How could the signs be improved?
desclve	How would you describe the museum to someone who has not visited it?
descent	How would you describe the museum to someone who has not visited it?

The .dau file for two respondents might be:

##recstart 10984
##v 'FOUNDWA' = 'We just wandered around'
##v 'SIGNSHW' = 'It needs more signs'
##v 'DESCLVE' = 'It\'s fantastic'
##end 10984
##recstart 10875
##v 'DESCENT' = 'A respected institution'
##end 10875

The first line marks the start of the data for the respondent whose serial number is 10984. The serial number is typically held in the Respondent.Serial system variable. The next three lines hold the responses to three open-ended questions. Notice that the question names have been converted to upper case. The fifth line marks the end of the data for respondent 10984. The following line marks the start of the data for respondent 10875. This is followed by one line holding the response to the descent question and the line marking the end of the data for respondent 10875.

Notice that the text of the responses is enclosed in single quotes and that the single quote within the text in the fourth line is preceded by a backslash. Quantum DSC inserts this backslash to distinguish the single quote within the text from the one that marks the end of the text. Similarly, if the text contains a backslash, Quantum DSC precedes it with an additional backslash; that is, \\.

Quantum DSC writes the text for each response on one line, and inserts \r to represent a carriage return within the text and \n to represent a line feed.