Understanding Table Elements

Table Elements are used for questions that will be repeated for each of a set of categories. For example, if you want to ask a series of questions for each of several categories (toys, books, furniture, etc.):

Category 1

• Have you bought any toys in the past 6 months?
• Were any of those toys purchased over the Internet?
• How satisfied have you been with toys purchased over the Internet?
• Would you purchase toys over the Internet again?

Category 2

• Have you bought any books in the past 6 months?
• Were any of those books purchased over the Internet?
• How satisfied have you been with books purchased over the Internet?
• Would you purchase books over the Internet again?

—it would be nice not to have to write out each question once for each category. This is exactly what a Table Element does.

Tables are composed of categories and additional elements. Categories represent the categories for which the questions will be repeated (in the example above, the categories are toys and books). Elements represent the questions—Data Elements—to be asked for each category.

In other words, instead of having to create separate Data Elements for “Have you bought any toys in the past 6 months?” and “Have you bought any books in the past 6 months?” you can create a single Data Element: “Have you bought any <category> in the past 6 months?” QDS automatically generates the appropriate questions and separate variables for the list of categories.