Thao,

You can probably do this by just having a second RELATE to the child file in the .chk for the parent file. However, with the second RELATE command you'll go to a new record, rather than back to the one you were just working on. At data entry, you could then navigate back to the record you were working on. I'm sure this could be somewhat automated, but you take a big risk in doing so if you are just reviewing data and not entering it. You might want to have a separate .chk for use when reviewing data.

Another approach will be to duplicate, in the child file, the parent fields you want to go back to enter. These can be entered without interrupting the flow of data entry when you need to (and ignored for child records that don't call for returning). As the fields are entered, you assign them to a series of GLOBAL variables (defined in both the parent and child .chk files). Then when you finally return to the parent record, you can assign the values stored in the GLOBAL variables to the appropriate fields in the parent file. For examples of passing values via global variables, look at the HOUSE-PERSON-VISIT files in the EPIDATA\SAMPLES folder. With careful attention to what is in the global variables you pass back and forth, you can tell whether anything was entered via the child data entry screens. Some suggestions: - give the global variables (e.g. GVAR1) special values before the RELATE command - check for this value when you return - assign null or missing values, if you want, to these child fields once you have stored the values in the global variables; be sure to ignore these fields in your analysis. You can always get rid of them permanently before analysis by revising the .qes file and making a copy of the child file.

---- parent.chk ---- DEFINE gvar1 ____________ GLOBAL

PARENTID key unique 1 END

VARA gvar1 = "notentered" relate parentid child.rec if gvar1 <> "notentered" then VARB = gvar1 endif END ---- end of parent.chk ---- ---- child.chk ---- DEFINE gvar1 ____________ GLOBAL

PARENTID key 2 END

VARC if varc = "Y" then goto parentvar1 endif END

PARENTVAR1 gvar1 = parentvar1 parentvar1 = "" goto VARD END ---- end of child.chk ----

Again, it will be best to have a different .chk file for just reviewing the data as you may not want to be changing values. There are multiple ways to set this up depending on what your data looks like.

In general, jumping back and forth, either on paper, or in software like EpiData, is a temptation for error. Data entry works best when there is a clearly defined flow. It's always easier to figure this out with the actual .rec and .chk files than to be guessing what you want. Best of luck!

Jamie Hockin Public Health Agency of Canada

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