Checking for empty or unfilled cells

You can save time by checking whether a quota cell is full before the interviewer asks to speak to a respondent with those characteristics. For example, interviewers might have to check whether there are any women under age 21, between 21 and 30, or over 30 before saying that there are no eligible respondents in the household. You can save the interviewer time by checking whether each of these cells is full before prompting them to ask for women in each category. Thus, if the cell for women over 30 is full, the interviewer need only ask to interview women under 21 or between 21 and 30.

The Quota Object Model, which interfaces with the quota database during interviews, provides several methods of checking a quota cell’s status. You can:

▪use IsBelowQuota to test whether the sum of the pending and completed counts is less than the target. For more information, see Comparing the sum of pended plus completed interviews against the target.

▪write an expression that compares the cell’s completed count, or the sum of the completed and pend counts, against the cell target. For more information, see Comparing the number of completes against the target.