Desktop User Guides > Professional > Interview scripting > Writing interview scripts > Dealing with errors > Standard error messages
 
Standard error messages
When a respondent selects or enters an invalid answer to a question, the interviewing program displays one of the following messages:
Name
Default text
CannotCombine
Answer '{ANSWER}' ({CATEGORY}) cannot be combined with other answers.
InvalidText
Answer '{ANSWER}' is not valid.
MissingAnswer
Missing answer(s).
NotBoolean
Answer '{ANSWER}' is not boolean.
NotDate
Answer '{ANSWER}' is not a valid date.
NotInRange
Answer '{ANSWER}' is not in range '{RANGE}'.
NotInteger
Answer '{ANSWER}' is not an integer value.
NotNumeric
Answer '{ANSWER}' is not numeric.
NotSingleAnswer
Only one answer is allowed.
OtherNotSelected
Answer '{ANSWER}' ({CATEGORY}) has a response but is not selected.
PlayerNavigationDisabled
You have used the browser buttons, please use the Next/Previous buttons below.
ThousandsSeparator
The thousands separator character is not allowed.
TooFewAnswers
There are too few answers, at least '{MINANSWERS}' are required.
TooLittleText
The answer does not have enough text, current length is '{LENGTH}',, minimum is '{MINLENGTH}'.
TooManyAnswers
There are too many answers, only '{MAXANSWERS}' are allowed.
TooManyDecimalPlaces
The answer '{ANSWER}' has too many decimal places. The maximum is '{MAXLENGTH}'.
TooManyDigits
The answer '{ANSWER}' has too many digits. The maximum is '{MAXLENGTH}'.
TooMuchText
The answer has too much text, current length is '{LENGTH}',, maximum is '{MAXLENGTH}'.
If an error occurs on a question that is nested within another question, such as a question in a loop, the error is shown next to the nested question, as shown here:
Three-dimensional grid with messages for the repeated question only
This graphic is described in the surrounding text.
The interviewing program also generates error messages at the question’s parent level, but does not normally display them. The parent question error specifies the name and number of the subquestion that caused the error. This is repeated for all levels independent of how many levels of nesting there are. For information about displaying error messages for these types of questions, and examples of what the messages look like, see Error messages for questions in loops and blocks
The standard error messages are specified in the StandardTexts.mdd file in C:\Program Files\Common Files\IBM\SPSS\DataCollection\<version>\IOM. You can change the default text by using MDM Label Manager, or add translations by using the Translation Utility. To change error messages for only certain projects, see Replacing the standard message texts.
If you change StandardTexts.mdd, you must stop and restart IIS to have your changes recognized. If you are using Windows 2003, you can stop and restart the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server application pool, instead of restarting IIS; this has the advantage of not affecting any other applications that are using IIS.
When the interviewing program needs to use a standard message text, it looks for it in the following places in the following order:
1 Helper fields defined in the metadata for the current question.
2 A StandardTexts block in the metadata section.
3 A default text in StandardTexts.mdd.
4 A default message stored in the interviewing program. The messages always display in English, unless you are running a translated version of the interviewing program.
See also
Dealing with errors