November 2009 - EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

preventing duplicate entries
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 Dec '09

09 Dec '09

I am entering daily visit counts to walk-in clinics in our area. There are 6 clinics or sites. So a record is uniquely identified by site and date. Is there a way to prevent the entry of records with a site-date combination that duplicates a site-date combination that already exists in the database? Thanks. --Chris -- Christopher W. Ryan, MD SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton 425 Robinson Street, Binghamton, NY 13901 cryanatbinghamtondotedu "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." [Antoine de St. Exupery]

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Calculating age
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Nov '09

27 Nov '09

Hello, I have a little problam calculating intervals like age from two dates using formula LET AGE=ROUND(INT(TODAY-DOB)/365.25) It returns the value rounded to the nearest whole number, which is a problem in records of people with birthday 6 and more months (183 days and more) from today's date, as it makes them one year older.. Is there any way to get result rounded towards zero? Kind regards Eva

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Time and time differences - recording of time variables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Nov '09

27 Nov '09

Projects where I needed date and time were - Study on surgeries with start time and end time of surgery (some of which started before midnight and went on to the next day) - Study on patients in intensive care units in which date and time of arrival and discharge was available up to minutes I think having two fields is fine . However, it would be handy to have functions to convert hours.minutes.seconds into a fraction of day which then can be added to a date which finally allows to calculate differences and things like that. with best wishes marcel *********** Marcel Zwahlen Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine University Bern, Switzerland phone ++41-31-631.3554 facsimile ++41-31-631.3520 http://www.ispm.unibe.ch/ -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca <mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca> ] Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. November 2009 13:12 An: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Betreff: [EpiData-list] Time and time differences - recording of time variables As part of current development there is an issue of how time is best represented in data. Recent years have added a date-time field to some database systems. In most cases for entry these are rather cumbersome to work with in practice in my experience. The suggestion is to add one time field: hh.mm.ss that is a time field with 6 digits. examples: Entered recorded 1 01.00.00 (one o'clock at night) 122 12.20.00 (20 minutes past twelwe) 182045 18.20.45 (20 minutes,45 seconds after 18 hours) Functions will be needed e.g. to calculate time in hours, minutes or seconds from day1 time1 to day2 time2. Or conversion of an imported date-time value to separate the date into one field and the time into another. Users are encouraged to give examples and discuss here on the list regarding: a. Needs for recording of time b. Examples of practical situations where this was needed c. In what format would users prefer recording. Also whether there seems to be a need for a combined date-time field. regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Re: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 73, Issue 5
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 26 Nov '09

26 Nov '09

As a general principle, it might be clearer and accomplishes the same thing if boolean fields are not used at all, but handle such things with a label block, using a numeric field: label yesno 0 No 1 Yes 8 "Does not apply" 9 "Missing response" end Hans epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca wrote: > Today's Topics: > > 1. jumps don't work (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) > 2. Re: jumps don't work (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) > -- 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

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jumps don't work
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

I have epidata 3.1 and am attempting to program skips using jumps in the check file. Here's part of the .qes file sdwfull Are sidewalks fully installed on both sides of the street? <Y> sdwgaps location gaps ________________________________________________________________________ ________ sdwbfr buffer between sidewalk and street? <Y> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ here's the .chk file sdwfull JUMPS 1 sdwbfr 0 sdwgaps END END ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Here's the codebook: sdwfull ------------- Are sidewalks fully installed on both sides of the street? type: Boolean jumps: 1>sdwbfr,0>sdwgaps missing: 0/0 unique values: 0 It doesn't matter if I enter 1,0, Y,y,N,n in sdwfull, the cursor goes to the next field, the skipnextfield does not seem to work either. I've tried putting the jump statements in quotes, and making sure that there is a space after the comma. I apologize if I'm missing some basic syntax, but I've looked at the documentation and examples. Thank you, david Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail, including all attachments is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited unless specifically provided under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of this message. -- This email has been scanned by the Sybari - Antigen Email System. ______________________________________________________________________ Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail,including all attachments is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review,use,disclosure or distribution is prohibited unless specifically provided under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of this message. This email has been scanned using Webroot Email Security. ______________________________________________________________________

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Using time
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 Nov '09

23 Nov '09

Hi, I have two variables that use the hours. One with the start time of surgery and another with the time of completion of surgery. How do I get with the times and calculate the time of surgery. Thanks, -------------------------------------- Silvano Cesar da Costa Departamento de Estatística Universidade Estadual de Londrina Fone: 3371-4346 --------------------------------------

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status and news on current development
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 14 Nov '09

14 Nov '09

Dear all Early October I wrote about the new XML format and informed of a new test application "After a few weeks of comments on the format a new test application will be created.". As I have informed later in October the decision was made to create a test and verifying application instead. This has now been completed and the next steps of development are: 1. Develop a database builder, which will support: a. reading something resembling the "old qes file" b. visual building of a datafile structure (like the old epi6 "macro's" c. data entry definition of data structure, metadata and field attributes . field attributes are e.g. confirm, mustenter, top of form 2. Develop a data entry tool based on the new XML structure 3. Add to the entry tool GCP principles (transaction logging) 4. Add to Analysis documentation features not needed during dataentry 5. Add to the builder script based entry control. E.g. after entry .... if then ..... etc 6. Add to the entry tool handling of script based control. The principles of defining data entry systems and the entry control process will be defined in these levels: a . basic level - only field types and field labels are defined. (currently: create datafile from qes file) b. add metadata at field, file and study level (value labels/comment legal, missing data definitions etc.). c. add control at field and file level (mustenter, repeat, dataform colour, jumps etc) d. add scripting (before file, after file, after entry) The intention is to add translation very early in this process. The list will be informed at appropriate times. All test applications will be placed on the epidata.dk/testing.php. Documentation of the XML structures are found at: http://www.epidata.org/dokuwiki/doku.php/documentation:datafileformat_xml Documentation of the test application for file structures will be placed in the wiki as well (later). Two seminars are expected (if all goes as planned during the first half of 2010): a. Technical programming seminar with the purpose of defining a plug-in principle for the entry tool as well as analysis. b. Public oriented seminar focused on datadocumentation principles, celebration of the first 10 years of EpiData Software development, release of the source code for all above as open-source and strategic decisions on funding and resources for future developments. regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Revision of check commands during entry - and bugs in Entry
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 04 Nov '09

04 Nov '09

Dear all A number of bugs have been reported on part of EpiData Entry recently. Some of these are known and others new. All reporting done to the Flyspray database and/or discussed on this list are very important inputs to the re-writing of software which includes a new Entry-Client. The new client will use the proposed "XML" based data format, but will also fix known issues. Currently the development is focused on quality issues of reading and writing data files. The decision has been made to rely on "in-house" quality assurance where we construct a number of "difficult to read files", and document that these can be read, exported to all supported formats, read again with proper testing of values, field formats etc. This strategy is much less error-prone than relying on user-reporting of testing. The similar report for EpiData Analysis is always available at: http://www.epidata.dk/php/downloadc.php?file=epidata_analysis_validate.pdf --------------------------------------------------------- Currently we are looking at all the Check file commands to decide how and which of these should be continued or discontinued. Currently NO commands are on the "discontinue list". But some commands might be challenged. When doing so, the EpiData list will be oriented. There are three types of current check file contents: a. Metadata descriptions (study label, file label, field labels, category/value labels, missing value definitions). b. Data Entry attributes at field or file level: (range, legal, mustenter, top of form, no-enter, type comment etc) (file level: type comment allfields ....etc) c. Scripting commands : (jumps, goto, if ... then ... before file, after file, relate .....) Basicly the three levels a,b,c also reflect the user groups. From quick studies almost without metadata, labels are added (a), attributes added (b) and then further controls (c). A proper visually oriented filebuilder will be developed to assist users in the definition of these levels. Documentation of the new file format is shown at: http://www.epidata.org/dokuwiki/doku.php/documentation:datafileformat_xml Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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