Data editing > Examining records > Holecounts
 
Holecounts
Holecounts are used to obtain an overall picture of the data before you write your edit program. For each column they show:
▪a distribution of the codes; for example, how many respondents have a 2 in column 56
▪the density of coding; how many respondents have one, two, or three or more codes in each column
▪the total number of codes for the whole data file.
There is an example of a holecount below. The first column indicates the columns for which codes are being counted; in this case it is columns 1 to 16 of card 1. The numbers across the top are the individual codes, and the total in the top left corner is the total number of respondents (records): the data has 605 respondents.
There are two numbers in each cell; an absolute figure and a percentage. The absolute figure is how many records were found with a specific code in a column, and the latter is what percentage of the total data that is.
For example, there are 169 records with a code 1 in column 14 and this is 27.9% of the total. Similarly, 32 records have a code 4 in column 15 which is 5.3% of the total records. When the cell total is zero, no percentage figure is printed: this makes it easier to see the pattern of coding in each column.
The four columns at the right show the density of coding in each column. the columns headed Den1 shows the total number of records with only one code of any sort in the column. Den2 is the number of records with two codes in the column, and Den3+ is how many records were multicoded with three or more codes in that column. The TOTAL is the total number of codes in that column; that is, the sum of Den1, Den2 and Den3+.
                                       Visitor Survey - British Museum (Natural History) ALL VISITORS
Total = 605
  Col       &       -       0       1       2       3       4       5       6       7       8       9  Blank       Den1   Den2   Den3+ Total
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      |                                                                                                       |
  101 |     0       0     605       0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                100.0%                                                                                 |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  102 |     0       0     605       0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                100.0%                                                                                 |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  103 |     0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    605        0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                                                                100.0%                                 |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  104 |     0       0       0     304     301       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                          50.2%   49.8%                                                                |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  105 |     0       0       0     348     257       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                          57.5%   42.5%                                                                |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  106 |     0       0      99      99      99     100     100      99       9       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                  16.4%   16.4%   16.4%   16.5%   16.5%   16.4%    1.5%                                |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  107 |     0       0      68      59      60      59      60      60      60      60      60      59      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                  11.2%    9.8%    9.9%    9.8%    9.9%    9.9%    9.9%    9.9%    9.9%    9.8%        |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  108 |     0       0      60      61      61      60      60      61      61      61      61      59      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                   9.9%   10.1%   10.1%    9.9%    9.9%   10.1%   10.1%   10.1%   10.1%    9.8%        |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  109 |     0       0       0     605       0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                         100.0%                                                                        |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  110 |     0       0       0     341     264       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                          56.4%   43.6%                                                                |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  111 |     0       0       0      38      82      96     194      91      55      33      16       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                           6.3%   13.6%   15.9%   32.1%   15.0%    9.1%    5.5%    2.6%                |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  112 |     0       0       0     480     125       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                          79.3%   20.7%                                                                |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  113 |     0       0       0       2       0       0       0       0     478       0       0       0    125  |     480      0      0    480
      |                           0.3%                                   79.0%                          20.7% |    79.3%                0.79
      |                                                                                                       |
  114 |     0       0       0     169     436       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                          27.9%   72.1%                                                                |   100.0%                1.00
      |                                                                                                       |
  115 |     0       0       0      17      84      22      32      22       0       0       0       0    436  |     162      6      1    177
      |                           2.8%   13.9%    3.6%    5.3%    3.6%                                  72.1% |    26.8%   1.0%   0.2%  0.29
      |                                                                                                       |
  116 |     0       0       0     306     299       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      0  |     605      0      0    605
      |                          50.6%   49.4%                                                                |   100.0%                1.00
Look at column 115. 162 records have one code only in that column; six have two codes and one has three or more codes. The total number of codes in this column is 177, and each card has an average of 0.29 codes in this column.
The holecount is the starting place in your search for errors. There are many holecounts in which it is immediately apparent that the presence of certain codes indicates an error. It is also clear whether or not the column should be multicoded.
See
Creating a holecount
Filtered holecounts
Counting trailer cards
Multiplied holecounts
See also
Examining records