Quantum Variable Selection Rules

Quantum variable selection rules define which types of variables are to be included in and excluded from the Quantum specification. You can define rules based on two different variable features: data type and usage.

You open the Rules dialog box by clicking the Rules button in the Quantum Variable Selection dialog box. You close the Rules dialog box by clicking it again.

Defines rules based on the variable data type. The data type defines the type of data that the variable stores. The Type column in the Metadata Model to Quantum window shows the data type of each variable. For information about the data types, see Metadata Model to Quantum window. However, this topic does not give details of the BLOB and Level data types, because these are not implemented in UNICOM Intelligence Data Model 2.

Defines rules based on how the variable is used:

▪Part of a loop. Loops are used to define questions or sets of questions that are to be asked more than one once.

▪The results of coding. Coding is the process by which the responses to open-ended questions are sorted into categories.

▪Part of a compound question. Compound questions are typically used in UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Paper to present a number of related questions as a group using a shared list.

▪Part of a grid. Grid questions are special questions that present a number of subquestions in a tabular form.

▪Other specify. A text variable that holds the open-ended responses to an Other Specify category.

▪Used to hold an image file. A source file variable that holds the name of a file that contains an image or a recording of a question response (such as a .tiff file containing a scanned image of a hand-written response or a sound file that contains a recording of an open-ended response in a CATI interview).

▪Used for weight factor. A special numeric variable that holds weighting information that is typically used to weight data during analysis.

Select this check box if you want to exclude all of the system variables from the Quantum specification. However, the serial number system variable (Respondent.Serial) is generally included in the serial field.

Select this check box if you want to exclude all of the Quanvert extra variables, which store special Quanvert elements. This option is relevant only when working with Quanvert data. When you select this option, the .ex variables are included in the form of a comment in the axis specification (.qax) file only.

Applies the rules selected above to the questionnaire definition.

Saves the rules, so that they become your default rules, which will be used on all .mdd files you subsequently open.