Creating summarized grids
Often researchers and analysts want a summarized version of a grid question (a rating scale for example) where the top-two categories are combined for analysis. This is accomplished through standard variable editing (editing the categories of the grid question for example). However, there are times when a new view of the grid is required. For example, assume you wanted to tabulate each row by those people who were satisfied with a subject (i.e. per slice of a grid or iteration of a loop) against other key variables in the survey. Simply editing categories of the grid question would result in you having to manipulate countless grids and slices. Creating a summarized version of a grid prevents to need to maintain multiple grids and slices.
To create a summarized version of a grid
1 Create a new categorical variable: Variables > New
This opens the New Variable window.
2 Insert a category: Categories > Insert Categories.
This opens the Insert Categories window and displays a list of available categories.
3 Make the category a User Defined item.
4 Provide an appropriate category description in the Description field.
5 Click Edit Item.
This opens the Edit User Defined Item window that provides options for defining and modifying the expression for a user defined category.
6 Select the whole grid and add to the canvas.
7 Select the categories required for your grid question (for the row of the grid you are replicating).
If you have a large grid, click Open Category to place the whole grid in a new window before trying to make your selections. When answering a different analysis question, you can select across grid slices or loop iterations as well as grid question categories.
8 Click OK to return to the Insert Categories window, and then click OK again to return to the New Variable window.
9 Insert any other new categories for the appropriate grid/loop items into your new variable.
10 Save the new variable and exit the New Variable window.
11 Add the new variable to your tables.
See also