Mandatory columns

Contains a number or code that uniquely identifies each participant record. You must supply this information in your text file.

If your text file contains a field called “id” (in any combination of uppercase or lowercase letters), Participants maps that field to this column; otherwise Participants maps the first field in the text file to this column. You can change the mapping if the field that contains the participant’s id is not the first field in the text file. For more information, see Mapping fields in the text file to required columns in the sample table.

If you are loading participant records into an existing table, this column must be the Primary Key for the table. If you have specified that Participants must create the sample table, it sets this column to be the primary key.

If you are loading participant records into an existing table in a case-sensitive SQL database, the name of the column on that table must be exactly as shown, this is, an uppercase I followed by a lowercase d.

The sample management system sets the value of this column to 1 while it is running, and 0 at all other times.

The outcome code for the previous contact to this record.

How the record can be used: set to Web for an inbound self-completion interview or Phone for outbound telephone interviewing. Can be set by the script as Phone, Web, or Personal.

This column shows the queue in which the record is currently held. Participants sets the value of this column to FRESH when loading a participant record. The sample management system then updates the value as appropriate.

When replicate identifiers are defined in the queue field for specific records, those records can then be used to create sample/participant record subsets.

For more information, see Queues.

Participants sets the value of this column to 0 when loading a participant record. The sample management system then sets the value of this column to the serial number of the interview associated with the participant record.

This column is used by the Interviewing activity to filter the participant records that appears in interviewing reports. If the value of this column is 0, the Interviewing activity will treat the record as real data (or “live” data). If the value of this column is 1, the Interviewing activity treats the record as test data. If your text file does not contain a field with this information, Participants sets the value of this column to Null, and the Interviewing activity then treats the record as if it is both real and test data.

If you are loading participant records into an existing table, the table must include this column, even if your project is not a telephone-interviewing project.