Banding a numeric variable

Server User Guides > Survey Tabulation > Working with variables > Combining categories in a grid > Banding a numeric variable

Banding is the process by which you group the numeric values stored in a numeric variable into categories. For example, the visits variable in the Museum sample data set is a numeric variable that stores the number of times respondents have visited the museum before. You can group the values into bands, as shown in the following table:

This graphic is described in the surrounding text.

You can use an automatic process to create a number of equal bands, define each band individually, or use a combination of the two approaches. Either way, you use the Edit Variable dialog: Banding tab.

These instructions describe how to create bands so that they appear in all tables. If you want to create the bands in a specific table, use the Edit Axis dialog.

Opening the Banding tab

1 Select the Define tab.

2 In the Variable List, select the numeric variable, and then click Variables > Edit.

The Edit Variable dialog opens: see Edit Variable dialog.

3 Click the Banding tab.

4 From the menu at the top of the Banding tab, choose Insert. The Insert Bands dialog opens: see Insert Bands dialog.

Creating bands based on actual data values

1 In the Insert Bands dialog, click Get Min/Max From Case Data. The minimum and maximum values from the saved data are displayed in the From and To boxes.

2 Click OK.

Creating a number of equal bands

1 In the Insert Bands dialog, enter the starting value for the first band in the From box.

2 Enter the ending value for the highest band in the To box.

3 Enter the number of bands you require in the Number of bands box.

4 If it is a real numeric variable, enter the Number of decimals.

5 Click OK.

Creating single bands individually

1 In the Insert Bands dialog, enter the starting and ending value for the band in the From and To boxes.

2 Set the Number of bands to 1.

3 If it is a real numeric variable, enter the Number of decimals.

4 Click OK.

5 Repeat as necessary.

Reordering bands

1 Switch to the Edit tab.

2 To move a band click it, and then click Move Up or Move Down.

Editing bands

1 On the Banding tab in the Edit Variable dialog, select the band you want to edit.

2 Edit the band’s details as required. See Edit Variable dialog: Banding tab for more information.

The changes are applied to any existing tables that include the variable next time you populate them, provided you have not used the Edit Axis dialog (see Edit Axis dialog) to specify how the variable is to appear in any of those tables.