- EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Encrypted fields in EpiData
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 04 Jan '05

04 Jan '05

The reason for placing the encrypted key encrypted in the header is: 1. There must be a place to compare the entered password with the true one Otherwise the decryption cannot work. You could argue that if a false key was provided, then nonsense would be returned and it would be up to the user to see that contents of an encrypted field was garbage. I would feel that was a dangerous situation, since if the user saved the record again, then the wrong key would be applied to garbage giving "double" garbage and no way to retrieve data. Another approach would be to save the key in a different file than the rec file header, but your arguments would apply equally to that. Certainly I can assure: The idea was NOT to provide a backdoor in case the user forgets their password. There is no way for EpiData crew or others to retrieve a forgotten passkey So the core of the reasoning has been: We rely on the "non-breakability" of the AES/Rijndael encryption principle and we need to know if the user uses the correct key - otherwise data could be lost. As a comparison, e.g. the password mechanism provided by WINZIP or Access is not reliable, there are programs on internet which will guess millions of passwords in few seconds for these - and find the one used. regards Jens Lauritsen Initiator and coordinator of EpiData

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Line 640, error message
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Jan '05

03 Jan '05

Thank you for the reply! Here is the answer in your text below: We should know more about the contents of the qes file to answer, e.g.: 1. How many lines in total --> So far it is 1616 lines. 2. How many fields are you planning --> the questionnaire is made of different categories. It is between 70-80 fields. 3. Are you using the "first word" or automatic options for creation of fields. --> First word. 4. which build and version of EpiData --> Version 3.02 5. Have you tried also with the v3.1 release candidate ? --> Unfortunately no. 6. Does preview of the same file work --> Yes! all the time with no problem at all! >>If you have as many fields as you indicate the error is either because you have more than 1000 lines in the qes file (which v3.1. will issue a warning for) or the automatic numbering of fields with similar names ran out of possible combinations. --> Does not EpiData take more than 1000 lines or? Happy 2005! /Ziad > I sent past message related to "field definition error in line > 640" message. > I tried to retype the QES form. So each five questions, I > switched the > QES file into REC file and did "checks" for it. I kept doing the > same > procedure, and I passed the line 640.

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Re: error in line 640 (field definition)
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 31 Dec '04

31 Dec '04

> I sent past message related to "field definition error in line > 640" message. > I tried to retype the QES form. So each five questions, I > switched the > QES file into REC file and did "checks" for it. I kept doing the > same > procedure, and I passed the line 640. We should know more about the contents of the qes file to answer, e.g.: 1. How many lines in total 2. Hovw many fields are you planning 3. Are you using the "first word" or automatic options for creation of fields. 4. which build and version of EpiData 5. Have you tried also with the v3.1 release candidate ? 6. Does preview of the same file work If you have as many fields as you indicate the error is either because you have more than 1000 lines in the qes file (which v3.1. will issue a warning for) or the automatic numbering of fields with similar names ran out of possible combinations. Happy new year to everyone Jens Lauritsen

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RE : [EpiData-list] Field definition error
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 29 Dec '04

29 Dec '04

Limits: * EpiData is a single user program. Workaround: Enter data on one PC and distribute copies for reading of data to other PC's. * Number of Records in a file (currently around 200.000). * All fields must fit within 999 lines of text. - but: You can combine files which each has that many lines (RELATE function -------- Message d'origine-------- De: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca de la part de epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Date: mer. 29/12/2004 09:33 À: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Cc: Objet: [EpiData-list] Field definition error Hello again! I sent past message related to "field definition error in line 640" message. I tried to retype the QES form. So each five questions, I switched the QES file into REC file and did "checks" for it. I kept doing the same procedure, and I passed the line 640. Later on, the message showed up again, and please note here that I was at line 1007, which means EpiData read line 640 already before and there was no problem. What happened now? Help!! Thank you and best regards /Ziad -- Ziad El-Khatib Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Z5:01, Karolinska Institutet 17 176 Stockholm Sweden Telephone: +46-8-517 72 946 Fax: +46-8-517 79 621 Mobile: +46-73-776 48 59 _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list

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Field definition error
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 29 Dec '04

29 Dec '04

Hello again! I sent past message related to "field definition error in line 640" message. I tried to retype the QES form. So each five questions, I switched the QES file into REC file and did "checks" for it. I kept doing the same procedure, and I passed the line 640. Later on, the message showed up again, and please note here that I was at line 1007, which means EpiData read line 640 already before and there was no problem. What happened now? Help!! Thank you and best regards /Ziad -- Ziad El-Khatib Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Z5:01, Karolinska Institutet 17 176 Stockholm Sweden Telephone: +46-8-517 72 946 Fax: +46-8-517 79 621 Mobile: +46-73-776 48 59

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Error message
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Dec '04

27 Dec '04

Hello! I tried to run a REC file, I was getting this error message: "The field definition in line 593 could not be read or interpreted" This does not show when I "preview" the QES file. The field mentionned above is a number field (##).Everything looks ok for me. Any tips? Thank you in advance! Happy & Safe 2005! /Ziad -- Ziad El-Khatib Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Z5:01, Karolinska Institutet 17 176 Stockholm Sweden Telephone: +46-8-517 72 946 Fax: +46-8-517 79 621 Mobile: +46-73-776 48 59

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Troubleshooting data file error message
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 20 Dec '04

20 Dec '04

The first thing to do when getting messages such as "Error in the data file <filename>" Would be to check if the latest backup copy you made gives the same answer (I assume everyone are taking regular backups). If you have no backup copy of the file in question and you have exported the data to SAS, just make SAS save the file as a delimited file and get it back via the qes file, which you have hopefully a copy of. An error often occurring is that users are saving other filetypes on top of data due to Windows NOT showing complete file name, but excluding extensions. Therefore one can by mistake think that there "save as .not file " (e.g. yourfile.not), but it was actually a .rec file (e.g. yourfile.rec). To exclude that possibility set up your windows to always show extensions for all types, also known files. Ask someone if you do not know how to- it is an option in explorer for folders. regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData initiator and coordinator.

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EpiData Analysis v0.9 build 16 released
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Dec '04

17 Dec '04

Build 16 of analysis has been uploaded. Added or modified update shows which values are changed with if statements. if started with a pgm file, that file will be executed. internal representation of float variable changed from double to extended Testsystem improved (e.g. try startnist.pgm) Bug removal and modification: String variables of length 1 are saved correctly negative values in result variables fixed lre() function corrected for negative values Calculation of 10,25,75 and 90 percentiles corrected recode function corrected to include limits btw. groups Various interface problems Adapted Commands.htm and Howto.htm file. Download from Http://www.epidata.dk/testing.php Remaining issues before release as v1 are: Implementing a system to handle incorrect data when reading (e.g. years like 0203) Some aspects of reading dbf files - report errors. Table command - simplifying output for stratified tables Printing can be a problem accross printers - report problems. Defining Boolean variables impossible (<Y>) due to interference with html language, use integer instead. But for many standard types of analysis and basic graphs it works quite well. Regards Jens Lauritsen Coordinator and initiator of EpiData EpiData Association, Odense, Denmark

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Re: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 14, Issue 8 (Out of office)
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Dec '04

17 Dec '04

I will be back at my desk on Tuesday 22/12/2004 morning. Until then I will have little opportunity to access my E-mail. Anything regarding the: Inter-Agency EMERGENCY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH FORUM Please send your message again to interagency(a)lshtm.ac.uk If there is anything other requiring urgent attention, please contact: Rebecca.Collins(a)lshtm.ac.uk +44 020 7927 22 14 or Rachel.Clarke(a)lshtm.ac.uk +44 020 7927 22 14 Kind regards Kristof >>> epidata-list 12/17/04 18:20 >>> Send EpiData-list mailing list submissions to epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca You can reach the person managing the list at epidata-list-owner(a)lists.umanitoba.ca When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of EpiData-list digest..."

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Troubleshooting data file error message
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Dec '04

17 Dec '04

I am a new user of EpiData and I have successfully created data files and exported to SAS for analysis. One of the .rec files I recently created will not open and I get the following error message: Error in the data file <filename> The field definition in line 3 could not be read or interpreted. Any advice on how to correct this problem is appreciated.

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