- EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

EpiData alignment problem
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Jul '06

17 Jul '06

I cannot get past info(a)epidata.com filter no matter what subject I use so I am posting this to the group DEAR Jens and Michael , I have delayed composing this letter for quite some time because I so much appreciate the efforts and accomplishments of the Epidata(ED) team over the years. I was one of the early users and continue to use ED extensively in our very many projects here at the hospital. My problem is that what I see in the QES file is not translated, as it appears, to the data entry screens in the REC file. In other words, the form is not WYSIWIG; in fact, what you see is NOT what you get. What you sometimes get in data entry screens are fields that are scattered all over and the allignment between the lines is comletely lost. This does not happen in EpiInfo(EI). This problem is not apparent in the sample files because they only have one item on a line. To see the misalignment, the QES file must have multiple lines and fields that use the brackets, such as date and boolean fields. I examined the header portion of the REC file generated by both EI and ED and they are essentially identical. The brackets and their conversion are the problem! Consider the following very simple QES file: A<mm/dd/yyyy>B<Y>C___ D___________ E___ F___ Note: the font may be changed by you email client. To see the point being made, letter D should be right under letter A, E should be right under B and F under C using a fixed-width font, such as 'courier new' with no spaces between the fields. I have six fields(A-F) and have intentionally placed B right after A and C right after B. If this file is converted to a REC file in EI, everything is aligned exactly as it appears above. If it is converted in ED, it is not. 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. In fact, if you look at the data entry screen in EI, you will notice that after shifting to the left as described above, two spaces now appear right after field A and two space appear right after field B, and this maintains the alignment with the lines below. ED does exactly the same shifting as EI, but fails to add two spaces to the right of each of these bracketed fields. Changing the font in ED data entry screens to fixed-width does not help. I develop QES files with hundreds of fields of all types, and bracketed fields hopelessly mess up the alignment in both the screen version and in printed forms. While I can now(since I figured it out) make these adjustments in the QES file to maintain alignment, I cannot recommmend ED to any of my less experienced colleagues because the entry screens and printed reports will look disorganized, resulting in a less aesthetic experience and more data entry errors. I must therefore either personally design every form (which I do not have time for), or have them use something horrible like Excel. EpiData is a splendid product and is indeed legacy EpiInfo because it maintains the elegant features of the latter, while adding many new and really useful ones. The loss of alignment between lines, however, sort of ruins things for me although it probably does not affect most users. If my analysis is correct, I hope the program can be modified relatively easily. If I am wrong, maybe you can’t do anything. Either way, thanks again for all you have done for the rest of us EpiInfo lovers. Sincerely Steve Blum, PhD Associate Professor Albert Einstein College of Medicine Dept of Epidemiology and Population Health

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RE: [EpiData-list] Four files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 15 Jul '06

15 Jul '06

Hi you four different file (subject) or the same subject ? thanks __________________________ Ibrahim Hussaini Afghanistan Independent human rights commission Phone: (020)2500676- 2500197 Mobile: 0093(0)799155445 Fax: 0093(020)2500677 E_mail: ibrahim_hussaini(a)hotmail.com > To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:49:22 -0300> From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> Subject: [EpiData-list] Four files> > Hi,> > suppose that I have four files. How can I put all in one file???> > Thanks,> > ---------------------------------------------------------------> Silvano Cesar da Costa> Departamento de Estatística e Matemática Aplicada> Centro de Ciências Exatas> Universidade Estadual de Londrina> Campus Universitário> Cx. Postal 6001> CEP 86051-990> Londrina - PR> Fones: (43) 3371 4848 (direto)> (43) 3371 4346 (Secretaria)> > http://www.uel.br/pessoal/silvano> ---------------------------------------------------------------> > _______________________________________________> EpiData-list mailing list> EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself: design your homepage the way you want it with Live.com. http://www.live.com/getstarted

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RE: [EpiData-list] Four files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 14 Jul '06

14 Jul '06

Hi you said you have four different file to put in one file are same file? best regards Ibrahim Hussaini Database Assistant Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission Phone: (020) 2500676 - 2500197 Mobile: 0093 (0) 799155445 Fax: 0093(020)2500677 E-mail: ibrahim_hussaini(a)hotmail.com > To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:49:22 -0300> From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> Subject: [EpiData-list] Four files> > Hi,> > suppose that I have four files. How can I put all in one file???> > Thanks,> > ---------------------------------------------------------------> Silvano Cesar da Costa> Departamento de Estatística e Matemática Aplicada> Centro de Ciências Exatas> Universidade Estadual de Londrina> Campus Universitário> Cx. Postal 6001> CEP 86051-990> Londrina - PR> Fones: (43) 3371 4848 (direto)> (43) 3371 4346 (Secretaria)> > http://www.uel.br/pessoal/silvano> ---------------------------------------------------------------> > _______________________________________________> EpiData-list mailing list> EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself: design your homepage the way you want it with Live.com. http://www.live.com/getstarted

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Four files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 13 Jul '06

13 Jul '06

Hi, suppose that I have four files. How can I put all in one file??? Thanks, --------------------------------------------------------------- Silvano Cesar da Costa Departamento de Estatística e Matemática Aplicada Centro de Ciências Exatas Universidade Estadual de Londrina Campus Universitário Cx. Postal 6001 CEP 86051-990 Londrina - PR Fones: (43) 3371 4848 (direto) (43) 3371 4346 (Secretaria) http://www.uel.br/pessoal/silvano ---------------------------------------------------------------

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Definition of GCP guidelines and tools
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 08 Jul '06

08 Jul '06

Tim C. Responded: Which set(s) of GCP guidelines is Epidata using as the goal? GCP is an abbreviation of "Good Clinical Practice". The whole issue of GCP guidelines is a difficult one. The preparation in itself involves reading a lot of " heavy legal text". The major issue is that the principles are described in lengthy documents, but there is no strict definition as of what it really implies in terms of specific implementation (apart from the principles). I will add a summary of the main documents later. In the most recent time I have been experimenting with various software tools for the task: - bug tracking - developmental documentation of tasks resolved. - documentation in general - testing and verifying software behaviour - how to accomplish solutions which are operating system independent. ........ To develop all the details of this is going to be a lot of work, which is why collaborative efforts are crucial. One of the issues is persontime and funding and another is testing. As soon as I can reveal more details of the work plan and steps of this process the list will be informed. And interested persons invited to participate. Regards Jens Lauritsen

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stattables error and test principles.
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 08 Jul '06

08 Jul '06

Susanne Widmar pointed out an "estimation" error in a command: > As you can see the missing values are included in the calculation for > the 90th percentile. It's obviously a bug. However you may not detect > the bug if you're interested in the interquartile range: I quickly ran the same analysis with the most recent build available on the test page which does not show the problems. . version Current version: 1.1 Release 8 (Build 68) Latest public release 1.1 Release 1 (Build 62) . stattables sex /idr=km SEX N NKM P10KM P90KM Kvinde 490 423 18.00 265.00 Mand 3537 3197 0.00 265.00 . stattables sex /iqr=km SEX N NKM P25KM P75KM Kvinde 490 423 42.00 237.00 Mand 3537 3197 36.00 192.00 . describe km if sex = 1 Variable N=490 Sum Mean (95% cfi) Min p5 p10 p25 Median p75 p90 p95 Max KM 423 50288.0 118.88 109.42 128.35 0.0 0.0 18.00 42.00 73.00 237.00 265.00 277.00 286.00 . describe km if sex = 2 Variable N=3537 Sum Mean (95% cfi) Min p5 p10 p25 Median p75 p90 p95 Max KM 3197 330796.0 103.47 100.23 106.71 0.0 0.0 0.0 36.00 71.00 192.00 265.00 265.00 286.00 Apparently the bug shown has been corrected in build 68. - To avoid such errors a comprehensive test suite has been developed for analysis. Currently the test involves testing of around 650 different conditions and a test for the problem above has been added. I will update to a later build very soon to remedy the problem. Known other problems are: Estimation of OR in sparse tables The aggregate (stattables) command can create variable names longer than 10 characters Apart from that I am not aware of current problems of estimation. If other definitive bugs are known (not requests for new functions) please report to the new bug database, found at Http://www.epidata.dk/php/mantis Currently development is focused on "long term plans" including rewriting the software for further documentation and testing, experimentation with collaborative editing of documentation and other aspects of the development plan for 2006-2010. The "in-house" build of analysis has come to 85 now, where build 68 is the latest for public testing. When the current aspects are completely finalised a new build will be placed for testing. One of the many new aspects are more user control over the interface, a completely rewritten table command, which includes exact testing of stratified tables, calculation of gamma coefficient for ordinal data and extensive sorting. Working with summarised data is next in line. Other new aspects are further documentation tools within analysis (value labels, missing value assignment), renaming variables and enhanced control over graphics, e.g. axis and ranges. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Bug in EpiData Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 06 Jul '06

06 Jul '06

This is an email to the folk at EpiData. In my examples below I'm using the data file bromar.rec, one of the example data files that come with EpiData. The variable km has some missing data (.). This data seems to be correctly treated as missing values for some commands but not for all. One example is the StatTables command. Below is an example of the command I typed into EpiData and the resulting output: . StatTables sex /idr=km SEX N NKM P10KM P90KM Female 490 423 42.00 . Male 3537 3197 32.00 . As you can see the missing values are included in the calculation for the 90th percentile. It's obviously a bug. However you may not detect the bug if you're interested in the interquartile range: . StatTables sex /iqr=km SEX N NKM P25KM P75KM Female 490 423 67.00 265.00 Male 3537 3197 42.00 265.00 If you do a "describe" you can see that 265 is definitely not the 75th percentile. Suzanna Vidmar Senior Research Officer Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit Royal Children's Hospital Flemington Rd Parkville Victoria 3052 telephone: +61 3 9345 6372 facsimile: +61 3 9345 6000

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Q on jumping between fields from related tables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Jul '06

03 Jul '06

Hi, Would anyone be able to help me figure out how I can jump from one field in a child table to a parent table and back? I have related two files and depending on how the survey questions are answered, I need to be able to go from the child file to the parent table and back. It doesn't seem as if the jump function allows one to jump from one field in one table to another field in a different (but related) table. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Thao ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ms. Thao T. Nguyen CIESIN, Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory tel: 845.365.8994 fax: 845.365.8922 http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu

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bug tracking possibility - new system in test
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

In the preparation for compliance with GCP guidelines and general handling of the 2006-2010 development plan it is important to document bugs and issues resolved. A new bug tracking system is in test. Anyone who wishes to participate can sign on as reporter at : http://www.epidata.dk/php/mantis Following the testing further setup is required before the site will be operational: e.g.: definition of categories definition of projects definition of maintainers/managers etc. It the system is approved, then a cleanup will be made before final and further usage. But to me it seems as if the maintenance, running and using of the system should be easy. A few other options has been considered, but they seemed to detailed for the purpose. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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EpiTables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Jun '06

17 Jun '06

HI, I am trying to run an EpiTable on some basic food exposure data where 1=Ate the food item, 2=did not eat food item. However when I run the EpiTable it is automatically assuming that the exposure variable is 2 (ie.e not eating food item). How can I change the exposure variable to 1? ----------------------------------------- ******************************************************************* ******* The information contained in the EMail and any attachments is confidential and intended solely and for the attention and use of the named addressee(s). It may not be disclosed to any other person without the express authority of the HPA, or the intended recipient, or both. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not disclose, copy, distribute or retain this message or any part of it. This footnote also confirms that this EMail has been swept for computer viruses, but please re-sweep any attachments before opening or saving. HTTP://www.HPA.org.uk ************************** ************************************************

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