1. Home
  2. FFREERESPONSEFACTOR procedure

FFREERESPONSEFACTOR procedure

Forms multiple-response factors from free-response data (R.W. Payne).

Options

MRESPONSE = pointer Pointer with a factor for each RESPONSECODE, indicating which of the DATA texts contain that response
RESPONSECODES = text Specifies the codes to look for in the DATA texts
LABELCODES = text Strings to label the factors within the MRESPONSE pointer; default RESPONSECODES
DUPLICATECODES = factor Defines groupings of duplicate or alternative codes within the RESPONSECODES text
EXCLUDENULL = string token Whether to exclude the factor recording which DATA contain none of the RESPONSECODES (yes, no); default no
SUFFIXNULL = scalars Suffix to use to represent the null factor in MRESPONSE; default 0
LABELNULL = text Label to use to represent a the null factor in MRESPONSE; default 'none'
DATAFORMAT = string token Whether the data for the respondents is given line-by-line within the DATA text(s) or whether there is a separate text for each respondent (linebyline, textbytext); default line
CASE = string token Whether to treat the case of letters (small or capital) as significant when searching for the codes (significant, ignored); default igno
MULTISPACES = string token Whether to treat differences between multiple spaces and single spaces as significant, or to treat them all like a single space (significant, ignored); default igno
DISTINCT = string tokens Whether to require each RESPONSECODE to have one or more separators to its left or right within each DATA text (left, right); default left, righ
SEPARATOR = text Characters to use as separators; default ' ,;:.'

Parameter

DATA = texts Information from the respondents

Description

Multiple responses occur in surveys as the result of open-ended questions like “Which plants grow in your garden” or “What languages do you speak?”. Results from a multi-response question are represented in Genstat by a pointer containing a factor for each possible response. Each factor has two levels (numbered 0 and 1, and labelled 'absent' and 'present') to indicate where the corresponding response was recorded.

The data for FFREERESPONSEFACTOR are specified using the DATA parameter. If option DATAFORMAT=linebyline (the default), the data are specified in a single text with a line for each respondent. You can also give a second text, again with a line for each respondent, if you cannot fit all the information for any of the respondents into a single line. Likewise you can specify a third text if you need more than two lines, and so on. Alternatively, if option DATAFORMAT=textbytext, you supply the data for each respondent in a separate text. The information consists of free-form text in which the responses of interest are to be found. For example, in a survey of garden plants, the text might contain the lines

'I grow carrots, cabbages and lettuces. I also have an apple tree.'

The codes to find within the texts are supplied, in a text, by the RESPONSECODES option. If you want to supply alternative codes (for example, synonyms or singlar and plural codes), you should put all the alternatives into the RESPONSECODES text, and set the DUPLICATECODES option to a factor to indicate how the codes are grouped together. For example, Codes below contains singular and plural codes for various plants, and Alternatives indicates how these belong together

TEXT [VALUES=carrot,cabbage,lettuce,potato,tomato,\

     carrots,cabbages,lettuces,potatoes,tomatoes,\

     apple,rose,magnolia,sycamore,'silver birch',\

     apples,roses,magnolias,sycamores,'silver birches'] Codes

FACTOR [LEVELS=10; VALUES=(1...5)2,(6...10)2] Alternatives

The pointer of multiple-response factors is saved using the MRESPONSE option. By default, the pointer is labelled by the names of the codes (or by the first of each set of codes if there are alternatives). However, you can use the LABELCODES option to supply other labels if these are unsuitable (e.g. too long).

The EXCLUDENULL option controls whether or not the pointer contains a factor to make an explicit record of the people that gave none of the codes (default 'no'). This will be needed if the later tables are to contain a line for “no response”. The SUFFIXNULL option specifies the suffix to be used for this factor in the pointer while, the LABELNULL option specifies its label.

FFREERESPONSEFACTOR usually ignores the case of letters (small or capital) when looking for the codes. So for example 'Apple' would be the same as 'apple'. However, you can set option CASE=significant to recognise these differences in case. FFREERESPONSEFACTOR usually also treats multiple spaces as the same as a single space, but you can set option MULTISPACE=significant to treat these differences as important.

By default, FFREERESPONSEFACTOR requires each code to begin either at the start of the DATA text or to be preceded in the text by a separator (such as a space or comma). Similarly, it requires each code to end within the text with a separator (or to be at the end of the text). This is requested by the DISTINCT option, with its default DISTINCT=left,right. However, for example, you can set DISTINCT=left if the codes must be separated from other text only to the left (i.e. at the start), or DISTINCT=* if they need not be separated at all. The separators are specified by the SEPARATOR option.

Options: MRESPONSE, RESPONSECODES, LABELCODES, DUPLICATECODES, EXCLUDENULL, SUFFIXNULL, LABELNULL, DATAFORMAT, CASE, MULTISPACES, DISTINCT, SEPARATOR.

Parameter: DATA.

Method

FFREERESPONSEFACTOR uses the TXFIND directive to search for the response codes.

Action with RESTRICT

FFREERESPONSEFACTOR ignores any restrictions on the DATA texts.

See also

Procedures: FMFACTORS, MTABULATE.

Commands for: Calculations and manipulation, Survey analysis.

Example

CAPTION 'FFREERESPONSEFACTOR example'; STYLE=meta
TEXT    [VALUE='In my garden I grow carrots, cabbages and lettuces.',\
        'Vegetables: potatoes, carrots.',\
        'I just have a square of concrete where I park the car.']\
        Data
TEXT    [VALUES=carrot,cabbage,lettuce,potato,tomato,\
        carrots,cabbages,lettuces,potatoes,tomatoes,\
        apple,rose,magnolia,sycamore,'silver birch',\
        apples,roses,magnolias,sycamores,'silver birches'] Codes
FACTOR  [LEVELS=10; VALUES=(1...5)2,(6...10)2] Alternatives
FFREERESPONSEFACTOR [MRESPONSE=Vegetables; RESPONSECODES=Codes;\
        DUPLICATECODES=Alternatives] Data
PRINT   Vegetables[]
TEXT    [VALUE='In my garden I grow carrots, cabbages and lettuces.',\
        'I also have an apple tree, a rose bush and a magnolia tree.']\
        Garden[1]
&       [VALUE='Vegetables: potatoes, carrots.',\
        'Trees: sycamore, silver birch.'] Garden[2]
&       [VALUE='I just have a square of concrete where I park the car.']\
        Garden[3]
FFREERESPONSEFACTOR [MRESPONSE=Plant; RESPONSECODES=Codes;\
        DUPLICATECODES=Alternatives; DATAFORMAT=textbytext] Garden[]
PRINT   Plant[]
Updated on March 8, 2019

Was this article helpful?