Introduction to Quantum
Quantum is a highly sophisticated and very flexible computer language designed to simplify the process of obtaining useful information from a set of questionnaires.
Quantum has been designed with market researchers in mind so its syntax and grammar are similar to English. Nevertheless, it is still a computer language and as such should be used with precision and understanding.
What Quantum does
Quantum is a very flexible language which performs a variety of tasks. It can:
▪check and validate your data
▪edit and correct your data
▪produce different types of lists and reports of data
▪produce new data files
▪recode data and produce new variables
▪generate tables (in different languages, provided that the translated texts exist)
▪perform statistical calculations.
Any Quantum run may perform as many or as few of these tasks as you like, but for each run the basic format is the same.
Stages in a Quantum run
You need a data file to analyze; data files are usually collected by using market research software such as UNICOM Intelligence. The format of the data file must have responses in fixed positions (usually known as "columns", a term originating with the punch card format devised by IBM); in UNICOM Intelligence, this type of data is known as a “Quantum data file”.
Next, the tasks to be performed are defined using the Quantum language.
Then, Quantum translates these tasks into instructions that the computer can understand.
Finally, the computer itself uses this program to run your job.
Quantum comprises two sections: an edit section and a tabulation section.
▪The edit section checks and validates the data, generates lists and reports, corrects data, produces new data files, and recodes data and creates new variables.
▪The tabulation section produces tables and performs statistical calculations.
Quantum reads the records in the data file one at a time and passes them through the various parts of the Quantum program. As long as there are records remaining in the data file, the loop of ‘read a record -> edit -> tabulate’ is repeated; once the last record has been processed, the tables are ready for printing.
If errors occur at any point in a Quantum run an error message is printed telling you what is wrong. For more information about the error messages that can occur, see
Error messages.