Hallo everyone,
I am sending this note to anyone out there who can attach for me the copy of epidata data management complete manual. I am unable to download from the website. It is unfortunate for me since i did not have any backup in my computer.
Kindly attach the copy for my reference.
Be blessed in our continous understanding of epidata.
Caleb Ouma
Director,
Dataworld Research Ltd.
Kenya
---------------------------------
Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out.
Dear Richard:
You can do it in EpiData Entry the Epi Info way, that is two at a time.
Alternatively, use the elegant EpiData Analysis solution:
erase "abcde.rec"
read "a.rec"
append "b.rec"
append "c.rec"
append "d.rec"
append "e.rec"
save "abcde.rec"
Regards,
Hans Rieder
I have several people entering data to a common structure at different
sites. They email me the .rec files which I then combine into one file
periodically. It seems as though I need to combine the files 2 at a
time. Is it possible to combine them in one step? Are commands
available such that a command file could do the task? Another option is
to merge the files in SAS after converting the file 2 at a time, but
that, too, would take several steps.
Richard Herrell
NIMH
--
Hans L Rieder, MD, MPH
Jetzikofenstr. 12
3038 Kirchlindach
Switzerland
Tel: +41 31 829 4577
Mob: +41 79 321 9122
Web: http://www.tbrieder.org
In my experience you can write a longer check file with any editor also
the internal editor, but the part above and beyond 64kb gets stripped of
as soon as start using it in association with the QES file e.g. when you
create a rec file or start entering data.
Henriette
Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen
Epidemiologist,
WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women
Department of Gender, Women and Health
Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106
Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585
Mobile: +41 78 730 3035
E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int
Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/
-----Original Message-----
From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca
[mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca]
Sent: 20 August 2006 16:58
To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca
Subject: RE: [EpiData-list] best text editor for complicated check files
The manual says that there is a 64kb limit to the size of a check file.
Is this true if one uses an external editor or just the EpiData internal
editor?
---------------------------------
Get your email and more, right on the new Yahoo.com
I am looking for a recommendation for a text editor that support Epidata
check file language. Suggestions?
Karen Wang
Earth Institute at Columbia University
61 Route 9W
P.O. Box 1000
Palisades, NY 10964
Dear all,
Thank you very much for the various valuable suggestions that I recently
received to solve the issues around having both 01 and 1 accepted as
legal value for a numerical field. I adopted a combination of strategies
and think it is working fine now.
Now I have an issue around deleted records. Because my QES and CHK files
are so large I always have to work with related files for single
(non-hierarchical) questionnaires. (As reported on this forum before, it
is usually the 64k limit of the CHK file that forces me to split up my
entry screens, rather than the 999 lines limitation for the QES).
Because of this when a record needs to be deleted it will have to be
done in both parts. Any error in this will result in orphaned bits of
records so I insist the data entry supervisors watch out for this. Is
there a fast way that the data entry supervisor can find the deleted
files in a record? When I use "document" "view data" I do not see which
records are deleted. I think I am probably overlooking something. Is
there a way to make the deleted records quickly visible (without having
to go through all of them one by one in the entry mode)?
Thanks a lot for any suggestions.
Best regards,
Henriette
Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen
Epidemiologist,
WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women
Department of Gender, Women and Health
Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106
Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585
Mobile: +41 78 730 3035
E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int
World Health Organization
20, avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27
Tel: +41 22 791 2111
Fax: +41 22 791 3111
Visit WHO at: www.who.int
I usually use EpiData itself, just by opening the CHK file under FILE,
OPEN, and select the relevant file from all the files in the epidata
working directory (make sure you select the correct file extension). For
me the EpiData text editor works perfectly fine. I write all my check
files from scratch and they are often very long and complicated. I do
not use the check module and it has never occurred that comment lines
were stripped away. Hope this is useful. Happy writing and best regards,
Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen
Epidemiologist,
WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women
Department of Gender, Women and Health
Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106
Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585
Mobile: +41 78 730 3035
E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int
Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/
-----Original Message-----
From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca
[mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca]
Sent: 18 August 2006 21:36
To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca
Subject: Re: [EpiData-list] best text editor for complicated check files
I use Notepad for editing check files, although not necessarily creating
them from scratch since it's easy to do from the check module. If there
are repetitive checks in the file, I find it easier to use Notepad using
cut-and-paste for complicated checks. One thing to note: if you like to
have a lot of internal documentation in check files and you subsequently
alter checks from the check module, comment lines in the .chk file get
stripped away.
epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca wrote: I am looking for a recommendation
for a text editor that support Epidata check file language.
Suggestions?
Karen Wang
Earth Institute at Columbia University
61 Route 9W
P.O. Box 1000
Palisades, NY 10964
_______________________________________________
EpiData-list mailing list
EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca
http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Next-gen email? Have it all with the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.
1. Re: best text editor for complicated check files
The problem of "stripping comments" is that essentially only actual
commands are read into the programme.
When writing (or exporting) a rec file then only lines with commands are
known to the programme.
Therefore the order of using Epidata Entry and external editor is
important. An efficient strategy would be:
a. Create the qes and rec file
b. Open the rec file for definition of checks in EpiData Entry.
Here it is easy to get copy and paste for all of the field names. E.g.
1. I define that one field must be mustenter (regardless of I wish to
have this).
2. When that field is active I press Ctrl+C (which copies the mustenter
status to a buffer like clipboard)
3. Then I can quickly get a block for all fields into the check file by:
3a Moving to next field with "arrow down" with my right hand
3b pressing Ctrl+V with my left hand
4. Once point 3 is done for all fields I see if any fields have the same
"comment legal / value label"
if so I repeat point 1-3, but instead of the "mustenter" I define
the labels in the first field and
similarly copy to all the other fields of same label.
5. Then I close Epidata Entry and open the chk file in an external editor
I prefer PFE, which has also a macro facility and is listed as a
utility on the download page.
But any external editor of the users preferance will work.
5a. I then change the special blocks in the editor, save the file and
keep the editor open.
5b. During this I add a lot of comments to the chk file.
6. In EpiData Entry I open the rec file and after correcting possible
errors the system is ready.
So in short, use a strategy which minimises key strokes and manual
editing, but also note that
there are limitations with the built in possibilities.
The worst errors to catch are those due to improper blocks. E.g. a
comment legal without "end" or similar.
Therefore it can be good practice to only solve the first error
mentioned by EpIData Entry (point 6 above)
and then try again, since the remaining errors might be a consequence of
the first one.
An idea for extension of the programme would be to have in "tools menu"
a point :
"Create raw chk file for experienced users".
Regards
Jens Lauritsen
EpiData Association
Dear Jamie,
Thanks for the effort and time.
I tried the TRUE FALSE option instead of Y and N , no luck.
The examples you provided, were for European date format <dd/mm/yyyy>
Actually the applications developed in EPI6 were running for many years. EPI6 liked <mm/dd/yyyy> format. So the data entered over many years had actually American <mm/dd/yyyy> format.
I defined a new variable , AATDATE2 <dd/mm/yyyy> format, copied and converted American dates data to <dd/mm/yyyy>.
Your last suggestion PQ= (ATTDATE2 >=DMY(1,1,2006) AND (ATTDATE2 <=DMY(30,3,2006) worked then.
Epi Analysis does not feel comfortable with American date format. I am not professional programmer but still strongly feel that date/ date range selection should be simple and intuitive.
Rather than posting fresh message, I request you to kindly help to solve following two queries also;
1.What is the EPI ANALYSIS equivalent of EPI6 command SET
PROCESS=BOTH. EPI ANALYSIS processes only undeleted records.
2. While running long PGMs in EPI ANALYSIS, if no records are selected after a select condition, the programme aborts. The rest of the commands of the PGM are not processed. You might remember, EPI6 could run PGMs of any length, closing database, recoding, erasing and writing new .rec files easily.
Jens and his Epidata Team have done a marvelous job of preserving the functionality of EPI6. May be few fine tuning are still required in this good effort.
With regards
Dr. Shavinder Singh
Department of Community Medicine
Dear Jens,
I am trying to use Epi Analysis for the Tuberculosis data analysis. I wrote following PGM. The date formats are American (mm/dd/yyyy). The ATTDATE variable is the date of starting of Anti-tuberculosis treatment. I want to select a date range of last 3 months to see the patients put on treatment in the last quarter. This selection should provide "y" value to the PG variable defined.
The error messages received on the EpiAnalysis screen after running the command given, are given below;
*TBQ.PGM (Updated on 15th August 2006)
*Program gives the QUARTERLY status report of Tuberculosis of area.
READ "d:\epi6\FGTRY\TB2000.REC"
SET STATISTICS=OFF
*Types the DATE RANGE of ATTDATE 3 months prior to beginning of present Quarter.
*defines the time interval of 3 months prior to present Quarter.
DEFINE PQ <Y>
IF ATTDATE > date("01/01/2006","mdy") AND < date("03/30/2006",mdy") THEN LET PQ="Y" ELSE LET PQ="N"
Error Massages in Epi Analysis;
Syntax Error
Script resulted in errors
Operation aborted
IF (ATTDATE > date("01/01/2006","mdy")) AND (ATTDATE < date("03/03/2006","mdy")) THEN LET PQ="Y" ELSE LET PQ="N"
Error Massages in Epi Analysis;
Data type mismatch
IF ATTDATE date("01/01/2006","mdy") AND ATTDATE < date("03/30/2006","mdy") THEN LET PQ="Y" ELSE LET PQ="N"
Error Massages in Epi Analysis;
Then is missing
Script resulted in errors
Operation aborted
SET STATISTICS=OFF
*End of PGM.
I tried these command combinations one by one but bot no luck.
The date ranges selection has been a tough challenge.
The F1 help section also has no clue.
Kindly help.
Dr. Shavinder Singh
Department of Community Medicine
Dear Jens,
Thanks so much for the time you took to respond to my concerns
re alignment in ED. Now that I understand the technical problems
you face in modifying the 'look' of the data entry screens, I will keep my
mouth shut. I did not mean to give the impression in my original message that I
will not continue to use ED. There are so many wonderful features you guys
have developed on top of the EI features that you carried over that I will mess
with the QES files to get the alignment I want.
I have been using EI/ED for almost 20 years and have no intention of
switching to anything else on earth, despite the fact that I have the resources
to do so! There is simply nothing better, in my opinion, for epidemiologic
studies and data. Thanks again
Steve Blum
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
[EpiData-list] Aligning of fields and development priorities
epidata-list at lists.umanitoba.ca epidata-list at lists.umanitoba.ca
Fri Aug 4 16:27:42 CDT 2006
Previous message: [EpiData-list] Epidata alignment problem
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Steve has written about the: "Epidata alignment problem"
The basic difference to remember from Epi Info v6 to EpiData and other
windows based interface programmes is the change from character based to
pixel based interface. The Epi Info screen V6 has 80 characters on aline
which can either contain a space or some letter.
Therefore what from simple logic could be phrased: (Quoted from Steve's
mail:)
"What EI does is remove the left bracket in field A
and shift the REST OF THE LINE one space to the left. It then removes
the right bracket from A and again shifts the REST OF THE LINE one
space to the left. It then does exactly the same thing for field B.
Everything would now be out of alignment with the next line,
except that EI then adds two spaces IMMEDIATELY to the right of EACH
field from which the brackets have been removed."
is not simple in the Windows environment, because the width of a space
is not easily attainable. The basic choice in developing EpiData could
then be:
a.
We skip the rec file format altogether and create a new variant where
alignments are measured in pixels instead of in characters. We develop a
"drawing interface" where placements of fields are freely floatable.
b.
We maintain the rec file standard which has as a consequence that all
sizes for the screen are measured in characters of variable width. The
problem is that the header only allows for small numbers to describe
placement of entry fields etc.
c.
We try to fiddle with a combination of calculations to estimate the
length of "one space" and based on this use the REC file format as a
basis of creating a "usually nice looking" entry screen.
d.
We add a new file type defining the exact positions of fields.
e.
We restrict choice of fonts to known types where alignment is possible.
The point C is actually what we have done. The problem being that even
with fixed size fonts the width of a space or a given letter is not very
easy to calculate on a given screen. Many aspects of this is also bound
to language. Some solutions are very good for one language, but not for
other languages with special letters. EpiData Software is typically
downloaded from nearly 100 countries every month, so to do development
and accomplish only one or a few is not fair. Already basing all on the
english language (and now website also in Spanish) is a restricted
policy. E.g. obviously I would prefer that everything was written in my
native language Danish, but only about 5 mio people speak that language.
Users who have been along since 1999 will remember that in the beginning
there were many problems of combinations of fields and texts which ended
messed up/overlapped or hidden from the interface. So the current
principle is a "parsimoneous" balance of different tests and principles
creating exactly the alignment problems pointed out.
So what are the solutions to the problem
a. Someone find or develop very good algoritms which can in a
standardised way replicate alignment properties and submit them to us.
b. Persons who are very keen on this uses other software which is not
tied to the limitations of the rec file format. There are plenty of
commercial solutions to choose among.
c. We find another solution.
Option A: Anyone keen to experiment and spent time on this can find
freeware tools at http://www.freepascal.org/
So the statement "If ED is indeed legacy EI then the face presented to
the world should work properly."
obviously is a very nice goal, but as mentioned not easy to attain.
Focus is on the data entered NOT on the visual quality of the interface.
The fact is that interface handling is a whole different story than:
>But if there are resources for doing things like import/export,
>pack, codebook, validate, consistency, compress, archive
>
which can all be handled by standard logic, and which tends not to be
included in other software. What we have done with the EpiData
development is to accomplish needs which we found possible and desirable
within the time frame we had for this project. Data quality has the main
driving priority - quality of alignment on screens has not.
My suggestion is to add the issue "enhancements of data entry screen and
design" to the development list for the plan 2006-2010. If someone are
willing to find funding for this on top of the already planned
activities it can be added, but otherwise it will not be added.
Whether the patience of users of the software is sufficiently large for
this approach or they decide on option B above is not up to me to decide.
Kind regards
Jens Lauritsen
Initiator and Coordinator of development.
EpiData Association
Previous message: [EpiData-list] Epidata alignment problem
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
More information about the EpiData-list mailing list