March 2005 - EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Regarding Command line processing:
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 Mar '05

02 Mar '05

The bad news is: We have not and will not build a dedicated menu program to replace epiglue as part of the EpiData Association activities. The good news is: There are several other possibilities to replace Epi6 menus within the "EpiData frame" To maintain the QES-REC-CHK file principle (see later for other possibilities) 1. Make a qes/rec file which in individual fields uses the "execute" chk file command 2. Create batch files with EpiC which will accomplish many things such as zipping and encryption for backup or maling, importing or exporting of data for analysis, controlling data consistency (CHECKRANGE etc.) 3. In analysis: Build your own form such as the opening info.htm, where you can include commands. To learn how - look at the info.htm in any simple editor and replace commands in the<epi....> tag. And learn a bit of html language coding. You will find textbooks on that everywhere. If you run epidata analysis (the test version) the opening window shows contents of the file "info.htm". Part of this is: Examples of how the programme works: Graph: Bar chart (Click) Statistical Process Control Chart (Click) If the user clicks on "Bar Chart" a bar chart will be shown. Behind the click is a link to the following analysis commands: Graph: <A HREF='epi:close;set echo=off;define fn __________________________ glob;fn= "@sysdir"+"testdata";cd "@fn";read bromar;set warning=on;bar agegrp;cd; set command=off;echo Press F1 to view info again;set echo=on'>Bar chart</a> (Click) This looks a bit complicated to new users, but if you look more closely several words are well known EPI6 commands e.g. close set echo=off read bar So to make a menu point for showing descriptive statistics and let the user define select you would just add to the info.htm fil a line of text in an editor: Statistics <A HREF='epi:close;read datafile;select sex = ?Sex= 1 or 2?; describe;set echo=off;close;view info.htm;>By sex</a>(click) The difficult part of this to understand: select sex = ?Sex= 1 or 2? Analysis starts the select command but instead of running it lets the user input a value in a box on the screen. On that screen the text "Sex=1 or 2" is shown to guide the user. Similarly other select or defines could be made. You could also add two lines for fixed selections: Statistics <A HREF='epi:close;read datafile;select sex = 2; describe;close;view info.htm;>For males</a> Statistics <A HREF='epi:close;read datafile;select sex = 1; describe;close;view info.htm;>For Females</a> Outside the EpiData frame, but within the EPI6 menu principles: Maybe we could persuade EpiConcept and Denis Columbier to make Winglue available. Winglue is a replacement for epiglue. Other possible strategies would be to make a simple html page and include "tags" to run whichever programme you like or use other software - e.g. epi info for windows from CDC or larger server systems. regards jens Lauritsen EpiData Association, Odense Denmark.

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New analysis build (18) ready for testing
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 Mar '05

02 Mar '05

I have placed build 18 v0.9 of analysis on www.epidata.dk/testing.php earlier today. Many things have been changed since build 17. (Complete list on: http://www.epidata.dk/analysisinfo/docs/versioninfo.htm) Among these handling of OR and RR in tables. 2x2 tables are now "inverted" to make disease and exposed top left corner. Percentages are in different cells in tables than the numbers. Thereby allowing to add e.g. () around percentages APPEND command to read more than one file into memory. In particular it is important to secure that a- the tables produced by stratification are correct b- estimates based on stratified tables are correct. c- tables are formed correctly (counts and percentages) with and without option specifications. An example of set is: set table percents="P1()" *will make output like this: tab kmgrp decgrp KMGRP 2.5-3.4 % 3.5-3.7 % Total % 0- 25 km 120 (15.3) 156 (18.9) 596 (18.7) ..... but set table percents="P1[ %]" set table percents header="[Pct %]" *will for the same command give: tab kmgrp decgrp KMGRP 2.5-3.4 [Pct %] 3.5-3.7 [Pct %] Total [Pct %] 0- 25 km 120 [15.29 %] 156 [18.9 %] 596 [18.66 %] similarly set table or=off set table rr=off controls whether odds ratios and rate ratios are shown or not. To show change off to on. The testsuite used for validation is not fully completed. You can see how much was tested by running the command runtest validate which will run all pgm files in the subfolder validate and make a report at the end. regards jens Lauritsen EpiData Association, Odense Denmark.

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Command line processing
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 Mar '05

02 Mar '05

Greetings. I was wondering if Command Line Processing is available. I noticed EpiC 'stuff'. I was thinking something like EpiData <filename> for DataEntry in a BAT file or through .MNU Or EpIDataStat.exe <filename.pgm> etc. Thinking of a system which would be MENU driven. Obviously, I haven't tried any of this. Has anyone else? Thanks, kelly

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Pia Muchaal/HC-SC/GC/CA is out of the office.
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 Mar '05

02 Mar '05

I will be out of the office starting 2005-02-25 and will not return until 2005-03-04.

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out of office reply
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 Mar '05

01 Mar '05

I will be out of office and not be checking my emails until March 4, 2005. marcel zwahlen

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several questions need your help.
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 Mar '05

01 Mar '05

A few comments based on mail from Yali Zhang <1. Is it possible to make the numbers right alignment in the field box after entry. No. A numerical field is by default left aligned. The problem is that the algoritms to calculate the length of the characters are not precise. So we have had to make the field a bit wider than the actual length of the characters. In the early versions of EpiData (v1.) sometimes for some users part of the numbers were hidden. >2. ... the double entry verification, if "08" is entered again ....."non matching value,the original value is 8, new value is 08" .How to solve this problem? Obviously for a numerical field "08" should be compared without the leading 0. Until we fix that just enter 8 without the leading 0. To get to next field hit return button. This will be fixed in the next build of EpiData. 3. Is the check file too large? And will it meet some difficulties when entering so many records? No - but for double entry make sure each observation has a unique key or id number for comparison. Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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several questions need your help.
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Feb '05

28 Feb '05

Hello, I am using epidata 3.1 for data entry in a CMB project. Followings are some questions: 1. Is it possible to make the numbers right alignment in the field box after entry. 2. In our dataset, the width of some numeric fields is 2. When "08" is entered, "8" is saved. But in the double entry verification, if "08" is entered again, the dialog box will told you "non matching value,the original value is 8, new value is 08" .How to solve this problem? 3. Our check file is about 138kb, question file 56kb, and about 20,000 records is expected to be entered. Is the check file too large? And will it meet some difficulties when entering so many records? Thank you very much Best regards, Yali Zhang Department of Clinical Epidemiology Beijing Hui Long Guan Hospital Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center Beijing 10096 P.R.C Fax: 86-10-82951150 E-mail:zhang_bsrpc@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ 免费下载 MSN Explorer: http://explorer.msn.com/lccn/

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