About Data Elements

Generally, most elements in your Specifications File will be Data Elements. Data Elements are used to request and record information for interview questions or other data collection items (e.g., laboratory results). Each Data Element must be designated as a specific data or response type (e.g., numeric or text). QDS supports the following response types:

• Yes/No
• Gender
• Response Card
• Nominal-Pick One
• Nominal-Check Each
• Date
• Time
• Time Span
• Local Currency
• Number
• Numeric Rating Scale
• Text
• Pattern
• Ranking

Once a Data Element has been inserted (Edit|Insert, Data or Select from the Toolbar), a new window will appear. This window has ten separate tabs, starting with Data Element on the left and ending with Response Set on the far right.

Each of the following tabs allows you to set options for the current Data Element:

• Data Element Tab
• Probes Tab
• Image Tab
• Applicability Tab
• Styles Tab
• Calculations Tab
• If Skipped Tab
• Test Tab
• Notes Tab
• Response Set Tab

Tip: You will always need to set options on the Data Element and Response Set tabs for each new Data Element. Although there are additional options available on the other eight tabs, you will find that you can often leave these options at their default settings.