Setting the number of responses in a variable
Use the Number of Responses dialog to specify the maximum number of responses that are allowed for a respondent in the variable. When you create new variables, this enables you to specify whether a variable is a single response or a multiple response variable. When you edit existing variables, you must specify the maximum number of responses if you add expressions or bands to a variable, if this results in the variable having a larger number of possible responses than originally specified for it.
For example, suppose that a survey contains a question to which respondents can choose one of the following responses: Very Satisfied, Fairly Satisfied, Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied, Fairly Dissatisfied, and Very Dissatisfied. As respondents can select only one of these answers, the variable is stored as a single response variable, with a maximum response value of 1. You might decide to edit this variable to add a “Top two box” called Satisfied Customers that combines the Very Satisfied and Fairly Satisfied responses using the Combine and Keep option (because you also want to see the individual responses). As a result, the variable is no longer a single response variable because the same respondent can be recorded as having selected the top two box and also the Very Satisfied or the Fairly Satisfied response. Because of this, you must indicate that the maximum number of responses is now 2, not 1, so that UNICOM Intelligence Reporter is able to carry out the correct calculations on the data. It is also necessary so that if you export the data, the output format is able to allocate space to store the additional response values.
When should you change the maximum number of responses?
Change the maximum number of responses for a variable if:
▪you create a new variable, and you want to tell UNICOM Intelligence Reporter whether it is a single response or a multiple response variable. For a single response variable, enter 1, for a multiple response variable, enter the maximum number of responses that can be selected for the variable by any respondent.
▪you use the Combine and Keep option to create new categories while retaining the existing ones.
▪you add a user-defined category to a single response variable, and the resulting category might be selected for any respondent in addition to an existing category.
You also need to change this setting for numeric or text variables if you have converted them to categorical variables using bands or user-defined categories, if the categories or bands overlap.
1 To display the Number of Responses dialog, edit the variable or create a new one, using the Edit Variable, Edit Table Variable, or New Variable dialog.
2 Click Categories > Number of Responses.
3 Enter a value in the Maximum number of responses for this variable field. This must be greater than or equal to the maximum number of responses that can be selected per respondent.
See also