Filed in Data Handling

Data is rarely glamorous, even though it's the core of our surveys. These posts include techniques for increasing your data quality and working more efficiently—sometimes both at once.

Dealing with data cleaning: "What do you mean I have to clean the data? I used the Web so I wouldn't have to do any data entry." While Web and scannable surveys will minimize data entry costs, some degree of data cleaning is required...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on July 4, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Data Handling | Reporting; TAGS: Data cleaning | Data validation | Import & export | Open-ended questions | Postcoding
Opening a CSV in Excel—without corruption: Comma Separated Values (AKA comma-delimited ASCII) are one of the most common formats used to exchange information. This is because they're compatible with applications on just about any operating system—going back to DOS days. On many computers, a .CSV file...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on February 5, 2007 | Last updated May 19, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Data Handling | Technology; TAGS: Excel | Import & export
Piping answers and data in surveys: "Piping" at its most generic refers to moving information in, out, and around a survey. This makes it a very useful technology for any dynamic survey (Web, telephone, kiosk), potentially enriching the respondent experience or increasing data quality. It's also...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on October 30, 2006 | Last updated May 19, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Data Handling | Questionnaires | Technology; TAGS: CAPI & CATI | Import & export | Piping | Telephone surveys | Web surveys
Scanning Survey Forms: As great as the Web is for surveys, there are times paper is a better fit (and phones and in-person too of course). When paper is what you need, people often look to scanning as a "no data entry" solution....; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on August 21, 2007 | Last updated May 30, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Data Handling | Technology; TAGS: Scanning
Stupid Excel data tricks: These days, most of us do more in Excel than the VisiCalc creators would have dreamed. Following are a few of my favorite tricks for working with data in Excel (the raw side, not the chart side). This article includes:...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on February 5, 2007 | Last updated May 30, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Data Handling | Technology; TAGS: Excel | Import & export
Translating Zip codes into cities: In a recent workshop, a participant asked how to deal with his Zip code data. Every time he did a survey, he was manually grouping the codes into regions for analysis. If you're in a similar situation, here's a better...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on August 14, 2006 | Last updated May 19, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Data Handling | Technology; TAGS: Import & export | Piping | Postcoding