QDS Reconciliation Naming Conventions

Sometimes, QDS has to assign a new variable name during the reconciliation process. This is indicated as "No: Renamed and appended to Standard" in the Reconciliation Rules conversion label.

Renaming Variable Rules

The majority of the time, the renaming can be described in one of three ways:

  1. If the original name is less than 8 characters and ends with a number…Add A to the end of the variable name
  2. If the original name is less than 8 characters and ends with a letter…Add 1 to the end of the variable name.
  3. If the original name is 8 characters…Drop the last character and add A or 1 (based on the new last character).

Renaming to Prevent Duplicate Variable Names

Sometimes the simplified rules result in a duplication of a variable name already included in the data. The scheme that QDS uses to create a new unique variable name is described by the following rules (that the basic rules above correspond to the first renaming attempts below.)

Variable name is 8 characters (maximum length for QDS variable name)

Drop the last character before proceeding. The truncated variable name will be considered the variable name for all subsequent steps.

If the variable name ends with a digit:

  • First, attempt to add a letter to the end of the variable name. Start with A and continue through the alphabet until a unique name is found.
  • If no unique name found, try adding a number to the end of the variable name. Start with 1 and continue with 2, 3, 4…0 until a unique name is found.

If there is no unique name and…

  • The variable name is less than 7 characters, add a zero to the end and (continue until a unique name is found):
    • Add a letter to the end of the variable name (A, B, C…Z)
    • Add a number to the end of the variable name (1, 2, 3…0)
  • The variable name is 7 characters, drop the 7th character, add a one to the end and (continue until a unique name is found):
    • Add a letter to the end of the variable name (A, B, C…Z)
    • Add a number to the end of the variable name (1, 2, 3…0)

If the variable name ends with a character:

  • First, attempt to add a number to the end of the variable name. Start with 1 and continue with 2, 3, 4…0 until a unique name is found.
  • If no unique name found, try adding a letter to the end of the variable name. Start with A and continue through the alphabet until a unique name is found.

If there is no unique name and…

  • The variable name is less than 7 characters, add a zero to the end and (continue until a unique name is found):
    • Add a number to the end of the variable name (1, 2, 3…0)
    • Add a letter to the end of the variable name (A, B, C…Z)
  • The variable name is 7 characters, drop the 7th character, add a one to the end and (continue until a unique name is found):
    • Add a number to the end of the variable name (1, 2, 3…0)
    • Add a letter to the end of the variable name (A, B, C…Z)

Tip: Variable names are one of the primary tools used by QDS for reconciling versions; this is yet another reason it is strongly recommended that you assign variable names rather than use QDS default auto-naming for final forms.