- EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Clarification - document on options
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 Oct '06

23 Oct '06

Shavinder Singh has made some comments which are welcomed, but also necessitates some clarifications. The document put on the testing.php page is NOT a list of commands. It is a somewhat internal technical document created with the intent to write an overview of which options will be in which commands. The reference to the commands is the same as users from version 1.0 of EpiData Analysis. Regarding the comments on dates I will only add that maybe we should change the name of date functions from to year(datevariable) yearval(datevariable) day(datevariable) dayval(datevariable) month(datevariable) monthval(datevariable) since now there is a conflict with variable names date, year and month, which users often will use. Also we should implement some sort of warning to users when they use for a variable name an internal name. E.g. neither of "or and if" will ever work as a variable name Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Feedback about the document 2.1 about unification
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 22 Oct '06

22 Oct '06

Dear Jens, Some feedback about the document 2.1 about unification and. Here is some feed back from user of EPI6 and Epidata and Epi analysis. There is lots of good function for fine-tuning of the output from analysis. The commonly used commands like FREQ, TABLES, and MEANS would be able to produce tailored output as per the needs. Few suggestions; 1. FREQ v1 produces the frequency table only. The summary measures such as observations, mean, SD, SE, minimum, maximum, 25th 50th 75th percentile are not shown. The provision of these details is helpful in examining a quantitative variable in detail. EPI6 had the facility of shutting the frequency table (esp. if it was too big) and print only the summary measures. The syntax was, FREQ v1 /n Kindly explore the possibility of this switch with FREQ command and the following switch also is so handy (EPI6). Another function was frequency weighted counts on variable FREQ v1 /SUM=v2, where v1 is a categorical and v2 is numerical variable. Is tab v1 /w=wvar same command or different, is not clear ? 2. Describe command gives the summary measures to some extent. This command has not been activated in the ver 1.1 of Epi Analysis. 3. MEANS command needs thorough overall. It requires the conversions of both the variables as numerical. The categorical variables are not numerical variables. Hence this should be changed accordingly. The (/q or quite) quite switch closes the output totally. Actually this should omit the display of tables only. The summary measures should be displayed as was the case with EPI6 command MEANS v1 v2 /n 4. Dates remain a sour issue with EPI Analysis, though there is lot of help available from the Epidata team members especially Jamie. Is it possible to use SET option to define the date command such as SET DATE FORMAT =mm/dd/yyyy or SET DATE format=dd/mm/yyyy We use most of the time only one type of date format. Then date or date range selection would become simple like simply typing the date variable. mm/dd/yyyy (If this does not make sense from programmers point of view, kindly forgive me) 5. The help manual As EPI ANALYSIS evolves in future, a well-written command reference becomes a necessity esp. keeping in mind the beginners. For example, SET options are clear to experienced user but not to the beginners. Scatter graphs with regression line drawn or an option to draw it like /r 6. Many commands listed in the command reference 1.1 are not implemented yet. The EPI ANALYSIS would be a wonderful product is most of these options are actually implemented. Keep up this good work. With regards, Dr. Shavinder Singh

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RE: [EpiData-list] help with week + year combination
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Oct '06

17 Oct '06

It works perfectly. Thanks very much. -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca] On Behalf Of epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 4:16 PM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Re: [EpiData-list] help with week + year combination Small change to your code below. Will that work? Jamie > I am hoping I can get some help with epidata and use of year and > week. > > Before file DEFINE WEEKS ## DEFINE YEARS #### DEFINE WEEK ####.## end DATEFROM MUSTENTER AFTER ENTRY LET WEEKS = WEEKNUM(DATEFROM) + 1 LET YEARS = YEAR(DATEFROM) LET WEEK = float(YEARS)+float(WEEKS)/100 END END If you want WEEK as a string, try: let week = string(years)+"-"+copy(string(100+weeks),2,2) (week is a string of length 7) This will yield WEEK like the following "2006-01" "2006-52" _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list

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help with week + year combination
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Oct '06

17 Oct '06

Hello all, I am hoping I can get some help with epidata and use of year and week. I currently work on a weekly report that numbers the weeks. However, we've come full circle one year, and I don't want the data to combine week 42 from last year with week 42 from this year. I have tried a number of different fixes, but nothing seems to work. I wanted to convert the 'week' field to a text, and just put "6-" in front of the week, but it just doesn't work! I've tried making week and year defined variables, then putting them together, but that doesn't work either. I've changed the week field from a numeric to text, hoping that would help, but it doesn't. For various reasons, creating a separate year variable is not a good idea, so I've nixed that. Any assistance you can provide would be appreciated. Here is the code I have right now, and it doesn't work: DATEFROM MUSTENTER AFTER ENTRY DEFINE WEEKS ## DEFINE YEARS #### LET WEEKS = WEEKNUM(DATEFROM) + 1 LET YEARS = YEAR(DATEFROM) LET WEEK = string(YEARS)+string(WEEKS) END END Thanks in advance Cas Tayor DEWS Co-ordinator Cell #03008582627

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Re: SPSS export
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 16 Oct '06

16 Oct '06

All you have to do is to run the whole sps file in SPSS not only the save command. By running all the commands (the complete syntax file) you create a dataset, which will then be saved as an SPSS systemfile. Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association <http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl>

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Implementing the list of Options in EpiData Analysis v2 - technical information
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 15 Oct '06

15 Oct '06

Following the discussion on the list and some "offline" correspondance with dedicated users I created a combined document with the current decision. Those among the list members interested in development issues can follow the link on the testing page http://www.epidata.dk/testing.php which is where such documents will be placed from now on. As an example a standard table will look like this and adding an option /SD will sort descending on values of row and column variables: . tab ill vanilla ILL Ill? VANILLA Ice Cream:Vanilla: N Y Total N 18 3 21 Y 11 43 54 Total 29 46 75 . tab ill vanilla /sd ILL Ill? VANILLA Ice Cream:Vanilla: Y N Total Y 43 11 54 N 3 18 21 Total 46 29 75 There is also a link on the testing page to the documentation system now used for all internal specification of development. Issues from the internal working plan are not shown to the public before we have a solution. But the issues are moved to a public list when a solution has been found. For bugs reported by users in the system the issues will be publicly available at all times. regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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RE: Significance level for Correlation Matrix
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 13 Oct '06

13 Oct '06

Hi, I have a problem outputting significance levels (p-values) for the bivariate correlation in a correlation matrix. I wrote a program: cor Y X Z T M A 5 x 5 correlation matrix is computed showing the correlations between the various variables. In addition the total number of observation is indicated at the end of the correlation matrix. However, there no significance levels for the correlations between the variables. I need your assistance in outputting the significance levels in addition to the correlations. Thanks. Achilles Katamba Uganda

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SPSS EXPORT PROBLEMS
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 11 Oct '06

11 Oct '06

Hi, I've a problem with the SPSS export function in EPIDATA. It creates a syntax file *.sps, which have to executed in SPSS to gain the *.sav file. For this purpose it is necessary to uncomment the last line of the syntax code. After this SPSS produces the following error code: >Error # 105. Command name: SAVE >This command is not valid before a working file has been defined. >This command not executed. But how can I define a working file before I have the exported data? Have anybody a soultion for this problem? Thanks in advance. Greetings. Benjamin Wecker -- GMX DSL-Flatrate 0,- Euro* - Überall, wo DSL verfügbar ist! NEU: Jetzt bis zu 16.000 kBit/s! http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl

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Set and options, graphs and recent questions
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

The point of illegal dates brought up by Robert is a good point to include in future work. >Loading data C:\c temp\date 1.REC, please wait.. >invalid year 1111, month 11, day 11 > > It can be a tedious work to clean out such dates, which can often result also from registry extracts from e.g. patient data. >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > A few comments on the set / option question in Analysis: Rule 1: Epidata Analysis should be based on proper methodology: Therefore the intention with development is always: a. Develop a good internal structure which does the job correctly. b. Create commands which make sense to users (easy to understand) c. Add proper options to the command to give the user more control d. Sometimes create parallel commands if the users are divided in two groups or the same internal command can be used for two completely different purposes. (e.g. aggregate and stattables do the same in current version) e. As part of development of each command make sure to develop test procedures to assess quality and precision. re e: Currently we have around 550 different tests made after changing anything inside the programme, but we have not had the time to develop these tests for the new table and graphics module, which has to be done before v2.0beta is released for user testing. Rule 2: Case sensitivity of options and set: EpiData Analysis will never be case sensitive, since this creates problems for many users. Actually just now there is an internal problem with <A > fields, which I am not sure to give correct behaviour always in all functions. Users are adviced to use the function upper( ) with such fields. Rule 3: Beginners should be helped in using the software. Aside from writing documentation and introduction notes (see www.epidata.dk/documentation.php) it is important to find a strategy of creating dialogs which assist users in getting a proper analysis done. More of this work will come in the future. Maybe we should have two types of dialogs. One with only the very few basic options and another for the experienced with all options available. Pedro's suggestion of >But at least you must try to follow a rule: e.g. the first letter of the >meaningful word affected by the options. > > makes good sense. But sometimes the "sense" is bound to one language, and then which of the many languages should we choose. The choice will be much like you have seen, but avoidance of lengthy options: e.g. /m (or /M) instead of /missing or /q instead of /quiet >Options should affect only: > >1.- what kind of records are affected by the command (e.g. those including >missing values; or those marked as deleted); >2.- what information is included in the output (e.g. Row percents, CI, >Statistics, etc..); >3.- the way the output is sorted (e.g. by labels, by count, by RR) > > We can discuss whether some options divide the user base in two groups, such that a general "set" must be defined. E.g. set deleted = on or similar. Finally let me say about confidence intervals, that I meant to write: TABLE CI FORMAT = "C()-" Which would give,. e.g.: "(0.21-0.56)" , whereas "C " would give "0.21 0.56" in the tables. -------------------------------------------------------- Regarding Scatter graph and regression lines: This is a good suggestion for a new feature. I suggest that such new features are reported to the Mantis database found at the epidata site in subfolder "php/mantis" Currently there is a very unrestrictive sign-on principle for the system. (See comment below). Please respect the system as a creative tool in further development. -------------------------------------------------------- Restrictions implemented Unfortunately a number of users (possibly only one) in the beginning telling to come from Hungary has found it interesting to send adverticements for pharmaceutical products to the EpiData Newslist increasing the number of members there by about 25-50 persons. This unfortunately is one of the annoying aspects of releasing software in an open spirit environment, since I had to spend about 4-5 hours before finding a solution to hopefully block further attempts and to remedy the "damage done". Hours which were more fruitfully used on development, user help or going for a walk near the sea in the beginning autumn . -------------------------------------------------------- Kind regards Jens lauritsen EpiData Association > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: > [EpiData-list] RE: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 36, Issue 6 > From: > epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Date: > Sun, 8 Oct 2006 10:03:28 +0200 > To: > <epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> > > To: > <epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> > > >Scatter Graph >Is it possible to show "linear regression" line in options graph >like Epi-Info command scatter var1 var2/r > >Thank you > >B. Branger, Nantes, France > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >________________________________________ >EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca >http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list > >

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query re: exporting to excel and then using pivot tables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

Hello everyone...I do appreciate this forum. I have exported to excel a db with data from 140 questionnaires. The export worked fine, other than when I create a pivot table, the colums in the pivot appear to add themselves. I have never seen this before when using pivot tables so Im assuming its related to the EpiData export. That is to say... In EXCEL, on a 2X2 pivot table where Im looking at gender, 'male = 1' and 'female = 2' for data entry. If there are 11 'females' that should be represented in a box, it gives '22'...I assume somewhere the 11 females are being summed (2 X 11). I hope this is clear. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks you Todd

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Invalid Date
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

Jamie, Thanks for the quick response. Yes, we are using epidata 3.1 for all data entry up to this point. We are before the stage of double entry validation, but I need to append the data from 18 computers and calculate the number of questionnaires entered to pay the individual staff. Also I am writing my analysis syntax on the unclean data so it won't take so long to write the report when the data entry/cleaning is finished. Yes, I should have put a consistency check in for those dates, but I did not. Now I have a mountain of 1st entry data that I have to fight with. I am using analysis to write and run the APPEND.PGM. I thought it would work through EPI-C, but I cannot get EPI-C to recognize the append command. These types of .pgm's used to run through EPI-INFO, but don't appear to run in EPI-DATA. If I am wrong, please correct me. date.qes date <dd/mm/yyyy> date 1.rec & date 2.rec In Analysis: read "date 1" Loading data C:\c temp\date 1.REC, please wait.. invalid year 1111, month 11, day 11 invalid year 2222, month 2, day 22 invalid year 4000, month 3, day 12 invalid year 500, month 3, day 12 invalid year 6000, month 3, day 12 File name : C:\c temp\date 1.REC date Fields: 2 Total records: 6 Valid records: 6 . append "date 2" Loading data C:\c temp\date 2.REC, please wait.. invalid year 212, month 12, day 12 Appended file: Fields: 2 Total records: 1 Valid records: 1 Combined file: Fields: 2 Total records: 7 . savedata "dateall" Saving data to: C:\c temp\dateall.rec invalid date Failed to save data to C:\c temp\dateall.rec This is the Invalid date that I refer too. Thanks for your time. Robert > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2006 03:05:50 -0700 (PDT) > From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Subject: [EpiData-list] Invalid date error > To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Message-ID: <20061007100550.72167.qmail(a)web51301.mail.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > > Dear Epidata Listserve, > > The function on Epidata that only allows valid dates > is not allowing me > to save data after the append command. > The data entry keyers sometimes enter a wrong date. > The invalid date > does not become a problem (i believe) until I run the > savedata command. > Then the invalid date error pops up and the data is > not saved. > > read "WOMAN 1.rec" /close > append "WOMAN 2.rec" > append "WOMAN 3.rec" > etc... > savedata "WOMANALL" > > Is there any way to turn off the valid date > requirement or work around this? > > Thanks for the program and your support. > Robert Johnston > Phnom Penh, Cambodia. > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 08:27:16 -0400 > From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Subject: Re: [EpiData-list] Invalid date error > To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Message-ID: <45279D24.4080207(a)sympatico.ca> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Were the data entered in EpiData? If so, how could there be invalid > dates? If the data were entered using another program you should still > be able to validate the data with EpiData Entry, using a .chk file with > a CONSISTENCYBLOCK and a CHECK command. In the Entry Help file use the > Contents link to "Document datafile" and "Logical consistency check". > > It's a good idea to clean up this type of error before using Analysis. > > Jamie > > Robert wrote > >> The function on Epidata that only allows valid >> dates is not allowing me >> to save data after the append command. >> The data entry keyers sometimes enter a wrong date. >> The invalid date >> does not become a problem (i believe) until I run the >> savedata command. >> Then the invalid date error pops up and the data is >> not saved. >> >> > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 16:12:38 +0200 > From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Subject: [EpiData-list] Design decision and information (EpIData > Analysis) > To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Message-ID: <4527B5D6.6030804(a)epidata.dk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > In the design of v2.0 of EpiData Analysis I wish to simplify and clarify > the use of options and "set" definitions to a unified approach. And this > principle is more important > than backwards continuation of an unclear principle. The reason is among > other > that v2.0 will include more statistics, e.g. gamma coefficient for > ordinal data and > exact statistics for tables in general. > > Another intention is to have more options and fewer commands, but to assist > users by more intuitive dialogs. E.g. as now where graph commands can be > specified with a structured dialog where most options are available. The > intention is that : > v2.0: will include more functionality at the command level, but the > dialogs helping > beginners will come later. > > The problem with the current way of implementation is that there is a > non-unified > approach to what is defined at command level and what at "set" level. > Mostly > due to the way it was done in Epi6. And this confuses users. > > When the first release of v2.0 is ready all users will be able to > comment on the > actual implementation of the principles. The release of v2.0 for test > will be made > when we have reached a certain level of clarification. We are not quite > there yet. > But good progress is being made. > > I would like users to comment on these decisions: > ................................................................................................................. > option: > A specification for a given command. These are a combination of / and > letters or numbers > All options are made as short as possible and there is no intention to > try to make the option name > understandable, but in the documentation they should all be explained. A > given designation for an > option should mean the same in all commands if possible. > e.g. /m is always allow missing values > > set: > a general specification for running the programme or setting formats. > The first word of a "set" > tells what this specifices. General which cannot obey this rule should > be avoided. > e.g. set display databrowser = on/off (will always show data browser > in the background). > ................................................................................................................. > All showing of labels, values etc are defined by these "set" commands: > set var label = on/off ( show or hide variable label) > set var name = on/off (removes name of var if the same as first word > in variable label) > set var value = on/off (controls whether actual numerical value are > shown) > set var label = on/off (controls showing of "comment legal/value labels") > > e.g. set var value = off: show only value labels in tables (but show > values if no value labels are defined) > ................................................................................................................. > Creation and display of statistical tests, percentages etc are moved to > each command: > e.g. > means age sex (only descriptive summaries are shown) > means age sex /t (will display t test if one group and f test > +Bartletts test with more groups) > tables agegrp sex (only showns counts) > tab agegrp sex /chi (shows chi square values) > tab agegrp sex /r /c (would add row and column percentages) > tab agegrp sex /t (would add total percentages with no decimal points) > ................................................................................................................. > Format of estimates and confidence intervals and table column headers > are defined as "set": > e.g. > TABLE PERCENT HEADER ROW % > TABLE PERCENT FORMAT ROW P1{} > ................................................................................................................. > Format of Confidence Intervals are > > TABLE CI HEADER (95% CI) > TABLE CI FORMAT C2-() > ................................................................................................................. > > Regards > > Jens Lauritsen > EpiData Association > > > ------------------------------ > > ________________________________________ > EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list > > > End of EpiData-list Digest, Vol 36, Issue 6 > ******************************************* > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Comments about SET and OPTIONS
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 08 Oct '06

08 Oct '06

Jens wrote: "Another intention is to have more options and fewer commands, but to assist users by more intuitive dialogs. E.g. as now where graph commands can be specified with a structured dialog where most options are available." I am not sure what you mean. In my opinion the only unnecessary command, right now in EpiData Analysis is EPiTables, because you can modify very easily the TAB command using an option /Epi (for instance) if you want to add calculation of RR, OR ,etc. In addition, including dialogs can be very useful for beginners, but still try to keep it as simple as possible. In my experience the one already for graphs is a little bit confuse, you have lot of options you dont know how to use and most users are not going to explore it. " The problem with the current way of implementation is that there is a non-unified approach to what is defined at command level and what at "set" level. Mostly due to the way it was done in Epi6. And this confuses users." Thats clear and it is better to have a defined approach. .................................................................................................................. " option: A specification for a given command. These are a combination of / and letters or numbers All options are made as short as possible and there is no intention to try to make the option name understandable, but in the documentation they should all be explained." But at least you must try to follow a rule: e.g. the first letter of the meaningful word affected by the options. If options are case sensitive then a rule should be followed, e.g. always in CAPITAL LETTERS. "A given designation for an option should mean the same in all commands if possible. e.g. /m is always allow missing values" Agree. Options affect the current command and only this instance of the command. Options should affect only: 1.- what kind of records are affected by the command (e.g. those including missing values; or those marked as deleted); 2.- what information is included in the output (e.g. Row percents, CI, Statistics, etc..); 3.- the way the output is sorted (e.g. by labels, by count, by RR) Options shall be also part of the set group, so that the default option is the one defined by the SET parameters (e.g. SET MISSING=ON will affect all the commands as if in the command a /m were included). "set: a general specification for running the programme or setting formats. The first word of a "set" tells what this specifies. General which cannot obey this rule should be avoided. e.g. set display databrowser = on/off (will always show data browser in the background). .................................................................................................................. "All showing of labels, values etc are defined by these "set" commands:" Agree "Creation and display of statistical tests, percentages etc are moved to each command:" Agree (See above) "Format of Confidence Intervals are TABLE CI HEADER (95% CI) TABLE CI FORMAT C2-()" Dont understand. Do you mean: CI-( )? I hope other users want to share their experiences and opinions about these topics. Saludos, and thank you Jens for your efforts and this wonderful program. Pedro Arias Epidemiologist Co-Translator of EpiData into Spanish

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RE: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 36, Issue 6
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 08 Oct '06

08 Oct '06

Scatter Graph Is it possible to show "linear regression" line in options graph like Epi-Info command scatter var1 var2/r Thank you B. Branger, Nantes, France

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Design decision and information (EpIData Analysis)
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 07 Oct '06

07 Oct '06

In the design of v2.0 of EpiData Analysis I wish to simplify and clarify the use of options and "set" definitions to a unified approach. And this principle is more important than backwards continuation of an unclear principle. The reason is among other that v2.0 will include more statistics, e.g. gamma coefficient for ordinal data and exact statistics for tables in general. Another intention is to have more options and fewer commands, but to assist users by more intuitive dialogs. E.g. as now where graph commands can be specified with a structured dialog where most options are available. The intention is that : v2.0: will include more functionality at the command level, but the dialogs helping beginners will come later. The problem with the current way of implementation is that there is a non-unified approach to what is defined at command level and what at "set" level. Mostly due to the way it was done in Epi6. And this confuses users. When the first release of v2.0 is ready all users will be able to comment on the actual implementation of the principles. The release of v2.0 for test will be made when we have reached a certain level of clarification. We are not quite there yet. But good progress is being made. I would like users to comment on these decisions: ................................................................................................................. option: A specification for a given command. These are a combination of / and letters or numbers All options are made as short as possible and there is no intention to try to make the option name understandable, but in the documentation they should all be explained. A given designation for an option should mean the same in all commands if possible. e.g. /m is always allow missing values set: a general specification for running the programme or setting formats. The first word of a "set" tells what this specifices. General which cannot obey this rule should be avoided. e.g. set display databrowser = on/off (will always show data browser in the background). ................................................................................................................. All showing of labels, values etc are defined by these "set" commands: set var label = on/off ( show or hide variable label) set var name = on/off (removes name of var if the same as first word in variable label) set var value = on/off (controls whether actual numerical value are shown) set var label = on/off (controls showing of "comment legal/value labels") e.g. set var value = off: show only value labels in tables (but show values if no value labels are defined) ................................................................................................................. Creation and display of statistical tests, percentages etc are moved to each command: e.g. means age sex (only descriptive summaries are shown) means age sex /t (will display t test if one group and f test +Bartletts test with more groups) tables agegrp sex (only showns counts) tab agegrp sex /chi (shows chi square values) tab agegrp sex /r /c (would add row and column percentages) tab agegrp sex /t (would add total percentages with no decimal points) ................................................................................................................. Format of estimates and confidence intervals and table column headers are defined as "set": e.g. TABLE PERCENT HEADER ROW % TABLE PERCENT FORMAT ROW P1{} ................................................................................................................. Format of Confidence Intervals are TABLE CI HEADER (95% CI) TABLE CI FORMAT C2-() ................................................................................................................. Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Invalid date error
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 07 Oct '06

07 Oct '06

Dear Epidata Listserve, The function on Epidata that only allows valid dates is not allowing me to save data after the append command. The data entry keyers sometimes enter a wrong date. The invalid date does not become a problem (i believe) until I run the savedata command. Then the invalid date error pops up and the data is not saved. read "WOMAN 1.rec" /close append "WOMAN 2.rec" append "WOMAN 3.rec" etc... savedata "WOMANALL" Is there any way to turn off the valid date requirement or work around this? Thanks for the program and your support. Robert Johnston Phnom Penh, Cambodia. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Multiple Jumps
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

Hi, I've a problem with the JUMP command. I have 3 different questionaries in size and need that epidata jumps from a identifcation variable to the next variables. The problem is that I need multiple jumps. Something like that: If code=0 then go to questions 1, 5, 8, 9 If code=1 then go to questions 1,2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and so on.. Unfortunatly the jump command provides only the order for the next jump and not for that ones in the future. Thanks in advance. Greatings. Benjamin Wecker

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Re: [EpiData-list] Finding DEL records
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Oct '06

03 Oct '06

This is easy in Analysis: SET READ DELETED=ON READ yourfile SELECT RECDELETED LIST * or any other commands RECDELETED is a boolean that is true for deleted records. You need to use the set command to be able to access the deleted records. I don't know of a way to do this with Entry. Jamie > > From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Date: 2006/10/02 Mon PM 08:02:35 EST > To: <epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> > Subject: [EpiData-list] Finding DEL records > > Does anyone know how to do a search for records that have been marked as deleted, i.e. where the red X at the bottom of the data entry form has been clicked and DEL now shows up next to it. > > Thanks, > Suzanna > _______________________________________________ > EpiData-list mailing list > EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list >

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Finding DEL records
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 Oct '06

02 Oct '06

Does anyone know how to do a search for records that have been marked as deleted, i.e. where the red X at the bottom of the data entry form has been clicked and DEL now shows up next to it. Thanks, Suzanna

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RE: [EpiData-list] Issues of recent days
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 Oct '06

02 Oct '06

Thank you so much Jens!! I tried the steps and it worked perfectly!! By the way, did you get the message I sent last week to your info(a)epidata.dk address? If it ended up in the junk, I will resend! Thanks again, Henriette -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 29 September 2006 20:32 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] Issues of recent days ....................................................... Regarding Henriettes installation problem: There is no need to try different language versions. The exe file is always the same. I would do exactly this: 1. Install analysis on a different machine 2. Create a folder where you want analysis, e.g. c:\program files\epidata 3. Copy the epidatastat.exe to the "troublesome" machine in that folder. 4. Run the exe file (which will tell you that help files are missing). After that you can copy the documentation from the subfolders on machine 1 to the folders on the troublesome machine. regards Jens Lauritsen

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Re: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 35, Issue 12
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 30 Sep '06

30 Sep '06

Dear friends: I was working with Epidata Analysis module. I guess I did solve the problems. The first was with dates - the year format was abreviated in the original data. I used these data in training students and it was common to use them with Epi Info for DOS analysis where it worked fine. The problem was solved when I did correct the date to yyyy format. The second problem I do not understand. I was working with fields named weight and height and trying to calculate IMC. The return I did obtain was that the data did not match or that weight was inadequate. I transformed both fieds to portuguese using the following sintaxe: Define peso ##.## Peso = weight Define altura ###.## altura = height Then IMC formula worked properly. I am including the files as attatchment to this e-mail including the pgm file. The problem ocurred in my notebook, my desktop and in the desktops of the students at the laboratory (with windows XP and windows 98, respectivelly). I tried again just before sending this e-mail with the old file againl and it worked propperly. Sorry for the inconvenience. Sincerelly Gerson Zanetta de Lima ----- Original Message ----- From: <epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> To: <epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 2:00 PM Subject: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 35, Issue 12 > 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..." > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > EpiData-list mailing list > ___________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Today's Topics: > > 1. Issues of recent days (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ________________________________________ > EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.407 / Virus Database: 268.12.10/459 - Release Date: 9/29/aaaa

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Issues of recent days
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

Regarding questions the latest days. It is advisable when people ask questions that some information is ALWAYS included: a. Is this epidata entry or epidata analysis b. Which version of the software are you using (number and country versions) c. What is the operating system you are using A few suggestions for the specific problems: 1. Sara gets : >"access violation at address 048AC23 in module “epideata.exe”. Read of address 000000000" > So this is a "fortunate" situation since it is reproducible. I suggest you put your chk and rec file into a zip archive (tools menu) and send to info @ epidata.dk We will run your file in a controlled environment, since your combinations of questions etc. points to an error or bug in the epidata entry programme. ................ Gerson Zanetta de Lima have problems of a different nature. The problem is to get the software to "understand" that a simple calculation: >I can make operations like defining a new floating variable and using the command >newvariable = height/2 or newvariable = height*height > > But then trying to do the same with "define imc ##" does not work. This is due to the problem that EpiData Entry and Analysis are more strict in controlling variable conversions than e.g. Epi6. The problem is that: >weight/(height^2) or weight/(height*height) > > results in a float resultat - meaning the content cannot end in an integer. What should the software do with the calculations ending in e.g. 32.14 or 31.89. So in this situation if you only want the integer part of the result (here 32 and 31 or rounded 32 in both cases) make an explicit conversion: From help file of entry you find the function Integer(x), which converts x to an integer value. define imc ## imc = integer(weight/(height^2)) The same in analysis: example variable "Timer" which is float: TIMER Float X Integer 2 0 x = int(timer) Data type mismatch x = integer(timer) Since the function int(timer) returns a float value, but integer(timer) returns an integer value. Another example of this more careful value handling is when EpiData Analysis reads date variables. An illegal date will be rejected, e.g. "01/01/1", which would be accepted by Epi6. ....................................................... Regarding Henriettes installation problem: There is no need to try different language versions. The exe file is always the same. I would do exactly this: 1. Install analysis on a different machine 2. Create a folder where you want analysis, e.g. c:\program files\epidata 3. Copy the epidatastat.exe to the "troublesome" machine in that folder. 4. Run the exe file (which will tell you that help files are missing). After that you can copy the documentation from the subfolders on machine 1 to the folders on the troublesome machine. regards Jens Lauritsen

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RE: problem with installing EpiData Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

"Regarding the problem " .... "I recently tried to install EpiData Analysis on my laptop but upon running the setupepidatastat.exe file I get the following msg: >Runtime Error (at 5:598): >Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs". > > To understand the message you should know that EpiData Analysis tries to do the following during installation: 1. unzip the installation setup file to a number of files. 2. place these files in a structured number of folders 3. adds a line to the "...ini" files with the name of the working folder. This is done via an internal constant called "userdocs". Often when I am teaching EpIData the course has as part of it to install the files. And usually the situation in computer lab rooms is such that users (including teachers) have no rights to the machine at all. - except all rights in the subfolder: "c:\documents and settings\username\my documents" In that case I install to a sub folder, e.g.: "c:\documents and settings\username\my documents\epidatapgm" and chooses: "c:\documents and settings\username\my documents\epidata" as the working folder. It is the latter which has the internal name "userdocs" And it always worked except for one time where I then installed onto a USB stick (to e:\epidata) and afterwards copied that folder onto the pc with all subfolders. So in your case I would: 1. Get a copy of epidatastat.exe on a usb stick and copy that exe file alone to the c drive (or d ...) 2. execute the exe file which will then create a miminal subfolder structure and if this also fails it means that you cannot create subfolder's on your pc and something is really ackward. Reinstall windows or other similar. 3. if the minimal folder works then I would copy a complete installation onto a usb stick and from there onto the pc. Hope this helps - in all cases the installation does nothing but copying files and creating subfolders. So all in all the Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs". implies that your specification of the "userdocs" is not appropriate. Could it be that the operating system is not XP, but e.g. windows 95 or 98 ? Jens lauritsen EpiData Association

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RE: [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

Thanks for the suggestion. Sorry for continuing this saga. I again downloaded the complete setup (both the exe and the zip) and placed copies on desktop, C: drive and D: drive and tried to run each of them. I also tried to run the exe file directly from the epidata download page. Finally I did the same with the Spanish version. All with the same result: I am getting the error message mentioned below immediately as the first thing when I try to run the file (in the blue window "Setup - EpiData Analysis Public Release"), thus even before I am given the option to determine where to install it. Our organization's IT people generally do not give support to software that they don't know and since I do not have this problem with other software (I installed for example last week EpiData Entry and SPSS without any problems) they referred to the developers/providers of the software. But from your reaction it does not seem to be a common problem among other users, so I probably should try to get back to our IT people.... Thanks again, Henriette -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 28 September 2006 09:48 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: RE: [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis If your computer has more than 1 HDD (or more than 1 partition), try to install EpiDataAnalysis on another drive (D:) Gilles -----Message d'origine----- De : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Envoyé : mercredi 27 septembre 2006 13:50 À : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Objet : RE: [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis Dear all, Regarding the problem below, it is still not solved. To be clear, I am myself the administrator of my laptop so the problem is not caused by not being allowed to install. I am really stuck and very sorry to not be able to use EpiData Analysis in the field (at least not on my own computer). Are there any suggestions on what I can try? Thanks again. Henriette -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 21 September 2006 16:58 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis I recently tried to install EpiData Analysis on my laptop but upon running the setupepidatastat.exe file I get the following msg: Runtime Error (at 5:598): Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs". I have tried repeated downloading from the epidata website but with the same result. The same file installed the program without problems on my desktop computer. Operating system is Windows XP Professional (both desktop and laptop). Thanks for any suggestions. Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/

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access violation at address 048AC23 in module epideata.exe. Read of address 000000000
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

Dear Epidata, I wonder if you can help me, or point me in the right direction for some EpiData help. I'm trying to put in the checks to my questionnaire, and a couple of times now, i have had the following warning pop up when i try to enter a revision into the check file: "access violation at address 048AC23 in module epideata.exe. Read of address 000000000" then when I re-open the rec or chk file, all my edits to the check file have been cleared and the check file has been either emptied of all checks or deleted all together. I've tried to find help on the web site, through your tr manual and the epidata manual, but nothing relates to this error message. I just can't figure out what's going wrong. Do you have any ideas?? Thanks for taking the time to read this. Sara

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RE: [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

Dear all, Regarding the problem below, it is still not solved. To be clear, I am myself the administrator of my laptop so the problem is not caused by not being allowed to install. I am really stuck and very sorry to not be able to use EpiData Analysis in the field (at least not on my own computer). Are there any suggestions on what I can try? Thanks again. Henriette -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 21 September 2006 16:58 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis I recently tried to install EpiData Analysis on my laptop but upon running the setupepidatastat.exe file I get the following msg: Runtime Error (at 5:598): Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs". I have tried repeated downloading from the epidata website but with the same result. The same file installed the program without problems on my desktop computer. Operating system is Windows XP Professional (both desktop and laptop). Thanks for any suggestions. Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/

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How to calculate in epidataanalysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Sep '06

27 Sep '06

To the list: I do have a database with the fields weight (floating number) and height (floating number). I can make operations like defining a new floating variable and using the command newvariable = height/2 or newvariable = height*height but when I tri to define IMC ## and then IMC=weight/(height^2) or IMC=weight/(height*height) I do receive a "data tipe mismatch" as an answer. I cant have an answer when I try to get age as agemonths=(visitdate-birthdate)/30 The same calculations work with epiinfo for dos with the same datafile. Gerson Zanetta de Lima Brazil

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EPIDATA really appropriate??
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

QUESTION: I may be addressing a biased audiance, but Id like some reassurance that EpiData is the best way to go for capturing questionnaire data, which will then be transferred to STATA. I had started an EpiInfo database but then realized that it does not support double data entry...or at least not very easily. Thanks!! Todd Technical Public Health Advisor, Epidemiologist Technical Support Unit (STAO) Médecins du Monde 62 rue Marcadet Paris-75018 Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 92 14 79 Fax: +33 (0)1 44 92 99 92 E-mail: todd.swarthout(a)medecinsdumonde.net

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Query regarding grids??
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

Question: EpiData does not seem to have the 'Grid' option (To Deal With Repeating Data Within A Questionnaire such as age of household members). Is this true?? Cheers Todd

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Re: [EpiData-list] EPIDATA really appropriate??
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 24 Sep '06

24 Sep '06

I really like epidata for data entry. In our public health service we use epidata for data entry and epi info for analysis. We mainly use epidata/epi info for investigating outbreaks. As outbreaks don't come along all the time the computer support software has to be simple so staff can quickly remember how to use it. I teach courses on using epidata and epi info to staff and they find epidata in particular, very easy to learn. The two other things I like about epidata that have stopped me making the switch to doing everything in epi info are 1. How easy it is to have a 'master' qes form in Epiidata. You can open it up - add or delete a few extra questions - save it as a new name and then have a new rec file 2. The way it is easy to add new questions once you have started data entry With outbreaks we usually want to create questionnaires very fast - so being able to quickly adapt existing forms and adapt them once you've started is great. I don't find that Epi info has that flexibility for data entry but I do like it for analysis. I expect Stata can do more things but Epi Info seems to do all we need and of course is free! Christine Christine Roseveare Analyst Regional Public Health 570 9194 027 495 9671 >>> <epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> 24/09/2006 1:37 a.m. >>> QUESTION: I may be addressing a biased audiance, but Id like some reassurance that EpiData is the best way to go for capturing questionnaire data, which will then be transferred to STATA. I had started an EpiInfo database but then realized that it does not support double data entry...or at least not very easily. Thanks!! Todd Technical Public Health Advisor, Epidemiologist Technical Support Unit (STAO) Médecins du Monde 62 rue Marcadet Paris-75018 Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 92 14 79 Fax: +33 (0)1 44 92 99 92 E-mail: todd.swarthout(a)medecinsdumonde.net -- The information contained in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and remove all copies of the message, including any attachments. Any views or opinions expressed in this email (unless otherwise stated) may not represent those of Hutt Valley DHB. Thank you. ** Disclaimer added by HVDHB **

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RE: RE : [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

Thanks for the suggestion. Even if I have full administator rights for my laptop I did think about that possibility and had already been in touch with our IT people but they could not work it out. Henriette -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 21 September 2006 18:48 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: RE : [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis Probably IMO a problem with administration rights. I presume you need to get rights to write on the volume you are running Epidata Hope that helps I am running EpiData on Win Xp home where I am the administrator without any problem Robert Jean FREUND -----Message d'origine----- De : epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca] De la part de epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Envoyé : jeudi 21 septembre 2006 16:58 À : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Objet : [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis I recently tried to install EpiData Analysis on my laptop but upon running the setupepidatastat.exe file I get the following msg: Runtime Error (at 5:598): Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs". I have tried repeated downloading from the epidata website but with the same result. The same file installed the program without problems on my desktop computer. Operating system is Windows XP Professional (both desktop and laptop). Thanks for any suggestions. Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/ _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list

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tips to transfer to STATA
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

Im creating a EpiData tool for data entry, with the intention of eventually transfering to STATA...does anyone have any simple suggestions that I should be aware of while I set up the EpiData tool for transfer to STATA ...length of variable names, etc. Thanks!!

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RE : [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

Probably IMO a problem with administration rights. I presume you need to get rights to write on the volume you are running Epidata Hope that helps I am running EpiData on Win Xp home where I am the administrator without any problem Robert Jean FREUND -----Message d'origine----- De : epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca] De la part de epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Envoyé : jeudi 21 septembre 2006 16:58 À : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Objet : [EpiData-list] problem with installing EpiData Analysis I recently tried to install EpiData Analysis on my laptop but upon running the setupepidatastat.exe file I get the following msg: Runtime Error (at 5:598): Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs". I have tried repeated downloading from the epidata website but with the same result. The same file installed the program without problems on my desktop computer. Operating system is Windows XP Professional (both desktop and laptop). Thanks for any suggestions. Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/ _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list

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problem with installing EpiData Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

I recently tried to install EpiData Analysis on my laptop but upon running the setupepidatastat.exe file I get the following msg: Runtime Error (at 5:598): Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs". I have tried repeated downloading from the epidata website but with the same result. The same file installed the program without problems on my desktop computer. Operating system is Windows XP Professional (both desktop and laptop). Thanks for any suggestions. Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/

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RE: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 35, Issue 1
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 16 Sep '06

16 Sep '06

Hello, I have three questions : - When will the command "combine" be operating in Epidata Analysis ? - The second variable (qualitative in statistics) for the command "means" ("sexe" in the command "means age sexe") must be, in theory, string and created, in Epidata Entry, by "variable _". When it will be possible instead necessity of numeric variable ? - The command "update" and the screen with data tables cannot modify data : on the screen, the data are changed and not in the file... Why ? Thank you Bernard Branger, Nantes, France

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replicate datafile structure, without the data
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 06 Sep '06

06 Sep '06

I will be conducting a survey study very similar to one I've done before. I want to use the same datafile structure: the questions, datatypes, and checks will be nearly identical. Is there an easy way to produce a new set of .rec, .qes, and .chk files, replicas of the old ones, but with no records? Then I can make some small modifications before entering the new data. I'd hate to half to do it all again from scratch. Thanks. --Chris -- Christopher W. Ryan, MD SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton and Wilson Family Practice Residency, Johnson City, NY cryanatbinghamtondotedu GnuPG and PGP public keys available at http://pgp.mit.edu "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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copy of the manual
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

Hallo everyone, I am sending this note to anyone out there who can attach for me the copy of epidata data management complete manual. I am unable to download from the website. It is unfortunate for me since i did not have any backup in my computer. Kindly attach the copy for my reference. Be blessed in our continous understanding of epidata. Caleb Ouma Director, Dataworld Research Ltd. Kenya --------------------------------- Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out.

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Appending
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

Dear Richard: You can do it in EpiData Entry the Epi Info way, that is two at a time. Alternatively, use the elegant EpiData Analysis solution: erase "abcde.rec" read "a.rec" append "b.rec" append "c.rec" append "d.rec" append "e.rec" save "abcde.rec" Regards, Hans Rieder I have several people entering data to a common structure at different sites. They email me the .rec files which I then combine into one file periodically. It seems as though I need to combine the files 2 at a time. Is it possible to combine them in one step? Are commands available such that a command file could do the task? Another option is to merge the files in SAS after converting the file 2 at a time, but that, too, would take several steps. Richard Herrell NIMH -- 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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RE: [EpiData-list] best text editor for complicated check files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

In my experience you can write a longer check file with any editor also the internal editor, but the part above and beyond 64kb gets stripped of as soon as start using it in association with the QES file e.g. when you create a rec file or start entering data. Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/ -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 20 August 2006 16:58 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: RE: [EpiData-list] best text editor for complicated check files The manual says that there is a 64kb limit to the size of a check file. Is this true if one uses an external editor or just the EpiData internal editor? --------------------------------- Get your email and more, right on the new Yahoo.com

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best text editor for complicated check files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

I am looking for a recommendation for a text editor that support Epidata check file language. Suggestions? Karen Wang Earth Institute at Columbia University 61 Route 9W P.O. Box 1000 Palisades, NY 10964

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view deleted records in view data
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 20 Aug '06

20 Aug '06

Dear all, Thank you very much for the various valuable suggestions that I recently received to solve the issues around having both 01 and 1 accepted as legal value for a numerical field. I adopted a combination of strategies and think it is working fine now. Now I have an issue around deleted records. Because my QES and CHK files are so large I always have to work with related files for single (non-hierarchical) questionnaires. (As reported on this forum before, it is usually the 64k limit of the CHK file that forces me to split up my entry screens, rather than the 999 lines limitation for the QES). Because of this when a record needs to be deleted it will have to be done in both parts. Any error in this will result in orphaned bits of records so I insist the data entry supervisors watch out for this. Is there a fast way that the data entry supervisor can find the deleted files in a record? When I use "document" "view data" I do not see which records are deleted. I think I am probably overlooking something. Is there a way to make the deleted records quickly visible (without having to go through all of them one by one in the entry mode)? Thanks a lot for any suggestions. Best regards, Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int World Health Organization 20, avenue Appia CH-1211 Geneva 27 Tel: +41 22 791 2111 Fax: +41 22 791 3111 Visit WHO at: www.who.int

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RE: [EpiData-list] best text editor for complicated check files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 20 Aug '06

20 Aug '06

I usually use EpiData itself, just by opening the CHK file under FILE, OPEN, and select the relevant file from all the files in the epidata working directory (make sure you select the correct file extension). For me the EpiData text editor works perfectly fine. I write all my check files from scratch and they are often very long and complicated. I do not use the check module and it has never occurred that comment lines were stripped away. Hope this is useful. Happy writing and best regards, Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/ -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 18 August 2006 21:36 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Re: [EpiData-list] best text editor for complicated check files I use Notepad for editing check files, although not necessarily creating them from scratch since it's easy to do from the check module. If there are repetitive checks in the file, I find it easier to use Notepad using cut-and-paste for complicated checks. One thing to note: if you like to have a lot of internal documentation in check files and you subsequently alter checks from the check module, comment lines in the .chk file get stripped away. epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca wrote: I am looking for a recommendation for a text editor that support Epidata check file language. Suggestions? Karen Wang Earth Institute at Columbia University 61 Route 9W P.O. Box 1000 Palisades, NY 10964 _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Next-gen email? Have it all with the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

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Efficient strategy for complicated check files (external editor)
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 19 Aug '06

19 Aug '06

1. Re: best text editor for complicated check files The problem of "stripping comments" is that essentially only actual commands are read into the programme. When writing (or exporting) a rec file then only lines with commands are known to the programme. Therefore the order of using Epidata Entry and external editor is important. An efficient strategy would be: a. Create the qes and rec file b. Open the rec file for definition of checks in EpiData Entry. Here it is easy to get copy and paste for all of the field names. E.g. 1. I define that one field must be mustenter (regardless of I wish to have this). 2. When that field is active I press Ctrl+C (which copies the mustenter status to a buffer like clipboard) 3. Then I can quickly get a block for all fields into the check file by: 3a Moving to next field with "arrow down" with my right hand 3b pressing Ctrl+V with my left hand 4. Once point 3 is done for all fields I see if any fields have the same "comment legal / value label" if so I repeat point 1-3, but instead of the "mustenter" I define the labels in the first field and similarly copy to all the other fields of same label. 5. Then I close Epidata Entry and open the chk file in an external editor I prefer PFE, which has also a macro facility and is listed as a utility on the download page. But any external editor of the users preferance will work. 5a. I then change the special blocks in the editor, save the file and keep the editor open. 5b. During this I add a lot of comments to the chk file. 6. In EpiData Entry I open the rec file and after correcting possible errors the system is ready. So in short, use a strategy which minimises key strokes and manual editing, but also note that there are limitations with the built in possibilities. The worst errors to catch are those due to improper blocks. E.g. a comment legal without "end" or similar. Therefore it can be good practice to only solve the first error mentioned by EpIData Entry (point 6 above) and then try again, since the remaining errors might be a consequence of the first one. An idea for extension of the programme would be to have in "tools menu" a point : "Create raw chk file for experienced users". Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Date/ Date Range Selection
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 18 Aug '06

18 Aug '06

Dear Jamie, Thanks for the effort and time. I tried the TRUE FALSE option instead of Y and N , no luck. The examples you provided, were for European date format <dd/mm/yyyy> Actually the applications developed in EPI6 were running for many years. EPI6 liked <mm/dd/yyyy> format. So the data entered over many years had actually American <mm/dd/yyyy> format. I defined a new variable , AATDATE2 <dd/mm/yyyy> format, copied and converted American dates data to <dd/mm/yyyy>. Your last suggestion PQ= (ATTDATE2 >=DMY(1,1,2006) AND (ATTDATE2 <=DMY(30,3,2006) worked then. Epi Analysis does not feel comfortable with American date format. I am not professional programmer but still strongly feel that date/ date range selection should be simple and intuitive. Rather than posting fresh message, I request you to kindly help to solve following two queries also; 1.What is the EPI ANALYSIS equivalent of EPI6 command SET PROCESS=BOTH. EPI ANALYSIS processes only undeleted records. 2. While running long PGMs in EPI ANALYSIS, if no records are selected after a select condition, the programme aborts. The rest of the commands of the PGM are not processed. You might remember, EPI6 could run PGMs of any length, closing database, recoding, erasing and writing new .rec files easily. Jens and his Epidata Team have done a marvelous job of preserving the functionality of EPI6. May be few fine tuning are still required in this good effort. With regards Dr. Shavinder Singh Department of Community Medicine

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Date Range selection in Epi Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 16 Aug '06

16 Aug '06

Dear Jens, I am trying to use Epi Analysis for the Tuberculosis data analysis. I wrote following PGM. The date formats are American (mm/dd/yyyy). The ATTDATE variable is the date of starting of Anti-tuberculosis treatment. I want to select a date range of last 3 months to see the patients put on treatment in the last quarter. This selection should provide "y" value to the PG variable defined. The error messages received on the EpiAnalysis screen after running the command given, are given below; *TBQ.PGM (Updated on 15th August 2006) *Program gives the QUARTERLY status report of Tuberculosis of area. READ "d:\epi6\FGTRY\TB2000.REC" SET STATISTICS=OFF *Types the DATE RANGE of ATTDATE 3 months prior to beginning of present Quarter. *defines the time interval of 3 months prior to present Quarter. DEFINE PQ <Y> IF ATTDATE > date("01/01/2006","mdy") AND < date("03/30/2006",mdy") THEN LET PQ="Y" ELSE LET PQ="N" Error Massages in Epi Analysis; Syntax Error Script resulted in errors Operation aborted IF (ATTDATE > date("01/01/2006","mdy")) AND (ATTDATE < date("03/03/2006","mdy")) THEN LET PQ="Y" ELSE LET PQ="N" Error Massages in Epi Analysis; Data type mismatch IF ATTDATE date("01/01/2006","mdy") AND ATTDATE < date("03/30/2006","mdy") THEN LET PQ="Y" ELSE LET PQ="N" Error Massages in Epi Analysis; Then is missing Script resulted in errors Operation aborted SET STATISTICS=OFF *End of PGM. I tried these command combinations one by one but bot no luck. The date ranges selection has been a tough challenge. The F1 help section also has no clue. Kindly help. Dr. Shavinder Singh Department of Community Medicine

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Alignment Problem----Last Time
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 Aug '06

09 Aug '06

Dear Jens, Thanks so much for the time you took to respond to my concerns re alignment in ED. Now that I understand the technical problems you face in modifying the 'look' of the data entry screens, I will keep my mouth shut. I did not mean to give the impression in my original message that I will not continue to use ED. There are so many wonderful features you guys have developed on top of the EI features that you carried over that I will mess with the QES files to get the alignment I want. I have been using EI/ED for almost 20 years and have no intention of switching to anything else on earth, despite the fact that I have the resources to do so! There is simply nothing better, in my opinion, for epidemiologic studies and data. Thanks again Steve Blum $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ [EpiData-list] Aligning of fields and development priorities epidata-list at lists.umanitoba.ca epidata-list at lists.umanitoba.ca Fri Aug 4 16:27:42 CDT 2006 Previous message: [EpiData-list] Epidata alignment problem Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] Steve has written about the: "Epidata alignment problem" The basic difference to remember from Epi Info v6 to EpiData and other windows based interface programmes is the change from character based to pixel based interface. The Epi Info screen V6 has 80 characters on aline which can either contain a space or some letter. Therefore what from simple logic could be phrased: (Quoted from Steve's mail:) "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." is not simple in the Windows environment, because the width of a space is not easily attainable. The basic choice in developing EpiData could then be: a. We skip the rec file format altogether and create a new variant where alignments are measured in pixels instead of in characters. We develop a "drawing interface" where placements of fields are freely floatable. b. We maintain the rec file standard which has as a consequence that all sizes for the screen are measured in characters of variable width. The problem is that the header only allows for small numbers to describe placement of entry fields etc. c. We try to fiddle with a combination of calculations to estimate the length of "one space" and based on this use the REC file format as a basis of creating a "usually nice looking" entry screen. d. We add a new file type defining the exact positions of fields. e. We restrict choice of fonts to known types where alignment is possible. The point C is actually what we have done. The problem being that even with fixed size fonts the width of a space or a given letter is not very easy to calculate on a given screen. Many aspects of this is also bound to language. Some solutions are very good for one language, but not for other languages with special letters. EpiData Software is typically downloaded from nearly 100 countries every month, so to do development and accomplish only one or a few is not fair. Already basing all on the english language (and now website also in Spanish) is a restricted policy. E.g. obviously I would prefer that everything was written in my native language Danish, but only about 5 mio people speak that language. Users who have been along since 1999 will remember that in the beginning there were many problems of combinations of fields and texts which ended messed up/overlapped or hidden from the interface. So the current principle is a "parsimoneous" balance of different tests and principles creating exactly the alignment problems pointed out. So what are the solutions to the problem a. Someone find or develop very good algoritms which can in a standardised way replicate alignment properties and submit them to us. b. Persons who are very keen on this uses other software which is not tied to the limitations of the rec file format. There are plenty of commercial solutions to choose among. c. We find another solution. Option A: Anyone keen to experiment and spent time on this can find freeware tools at http://www.freepascal.org/ So the statement "If ED is indeed legacy EI then the face presented to the world should work properly." obviously is a very nice goal, but as mentioned not easy to attain. Focus is on the data entered NOT on the visual quality of the interface. The fact is that interface handling is a whole different story than: >But if there are resources for doing things like import/export, >pack, codebook, validate, consistency, compress, archive > which can all be handled by standard logic, and which tends not to be included in other software. What we have done with the EpiData development is to accomplish needs which we found possible and desirable within the time frame we had for this project. Data quality has the main driving priority - quality of alignment on screens has not. My suggestion is to add the issue "enhancements of data entry screen and design" to the development list for the plan 2006-2010. If someone are willing to find funding for this on top of the already planned activities it can be added, but otherwise it will not be added. Whether the patience of users of the software is sufficiently large for this approach or they decide on option B above is not up to me to decide. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen Initiator and Coordinator of development. EpiData Association Previous message: [EpiData-list] Epidata alignment problem Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] More information about the EpiData-list mailing list

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Aligning of fields and development priorities
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 04 Aug '06

04 Aug '06

Steve has written about the: "Epidata alignment problem" The basic difference to remember from Epi Info v6 to EpiData and other windows based interface programmes is the change from character based to pixel based interface. The Epi Info screen V6 has 80 characters on aline which can either contain a space or some letter. Therefore what from simple logic could be phrased: (Quoted from Steve's mail:) "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." is not simple in the Windows environment, because the width of a space is not easily attainable. The basic choice in developing EpiData could then be: a. We skip the rec file format altogether and create a new variant where alignments are measured in pixels instead of in characters. We develop a "drawing interface" where placements of fields are freely floatable. b. We maintain the rec file standard which has as a consequence that all sizes for the screen are measured in characters of variable width. The problem is that the header only allows for small numbers to describe placement of entry fields etc. c. We try to fiddle with a combination of calculations to estimate the length of "one space" and based on this use the REC file format as a basis of creating a "usually nice looking" entry screen. d. We add a new file type defining the exact positions of fields. e. We restrict choice of fonts to known types where alignment is possible. The point C is actually what we have done. The problem being that even with fixed size fonts the width of a space or a given letter is not very easy to calculate on a given screen. Many aspects of this is also bound to language. Some solutions are very good for one language, but not for other languages with special letters. EpiData Software is typically downloaded from nearly 100 countries every month, so to do development and accomplish only one or a few is not fair. Already basing all on the english language (and now website also in Spanish) is a restricted policy. E.g. obviously I would prefer that everything was written in my native language Danish, but only about 5 mio people speak that language. Users who have been along since 1999 will remember that in the beginning there were many problems of combinations of fields and texts which ended messed up/overlapped or hidden from the interface. So the current principle is a "parsimoneous" balance of different tests and principles creating exactly the alignment problems pointed out. So what are the solutions to the problem a. Someone find or develop very good algoritms which can in a standardised way replicate alignment properties and submit them to us. b. Persons who are very keen on this uses other software which is not tied to the limitations of the rec file format. There are plenty of commercial solutions to choose among. c. We find another solution. Option A: Anyone keen to experiment and spent time on this can find freeware tools at http://www.freepascal.org/ So the statement "If ED is indeed legacy EI then the face presented to the world should work properly." obviously is a very nice goal, but as mentioned not easy to attain. Focus is on the data entered NOT on the visual quality of the interface. The fact is that interface handling is a whole different story than: >But if there are resources for doing things like import/export, >pack, codebook, validate, consistency, compress, archive > which can all be handled by standard logic, and which tends not to be included in other software. What we have done with the EpiData development is to accomplish needs which we found possible and desirable within the time frame we had for this project. Data quality has the main driving priority - quality of alignment on screens has not. My suggestion is to add the issue "enhancements of data entry screen and design" to the development list for the plan 2006-2010. If someone are willing to find funding for this on top of the already planned activities it can be added, but otherwise it will not be added. Whether the patience of users of the software is sufficiently large for this approach or they decide on option B above is not up to me to decide. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen Initiator and Coordinator of development. EpiData Association

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Epidata alignment problem
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Aug '06

03 Aug '06

Dear Jamie Thanks for your response to my alignment problem. Unfortunately, neither solution offered is acceptable. Using one field per line is unmanageable when you have hundreds of fields. Using the '@' method, if you can figure out the pixel business, results in entry fields that are aligned, but the associated text is scattered all over the place and may be on different lines. The data entry screens and printed forms are the public face of ED. If ED is indeed legacy EI then the face presented to the world should work properly. Otherwise, either the QES file must be intentionally misaligned or the REC file will not be acceptable. But then the QES file is a mess. It seems to me that the code can be changed to correct this problem as indicated in my original message(see below). If it cannot be corrected, I would appreciate it if someone on the development team would let me know so I can switch to something else and be done with this problem. If it can be corrected, will it be? I understand and appreciate the enormous effort that has been expended by the team. But if there are resources for doing things like import/export, pack, codebook, validate, consistency, compress, archive ......., then how can the entry screens and printed forms remain unusable in a routine, typical manner? Steve ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 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 Steve Blum Steve, If you want to line up the entry fields and are less concerned about the text around them, put @ before the entry field. It is quite easy, with minimal trial and error, to get the entry fields to line up. In my experience, most questionnaires align the spaces to capture text and with judicious use of spaces to separate field names/text, you can get a questionnaire on screen that is quite easy to use. We teach our field epidemiologists to enter data one field per line, for simplicity and because this produces a nice companion to the codebook (we suggest using "first word" for field names). However, I also liked the fixed font approach of EI when creating questionnaires. Over the years, we realized that data entry fields scattered across the page were not ideal and shifted to the single column (with exceptions where it makes a lot of sense). The help file with ED doesn't say much about @, but does point it out in the explanation of differences from EI. In your example, I tried this: A @<mm/dd/yyyy> B @<Y> C @___ D @___________ E @___ F @___ and, while E is not under B, the entry fields line up very nicely. When you add the field descriptions, it looks better. Some fields may need more than one @, or add spaces before the field name. I prefer to use 'First word' because the questionnaire then documents the field names. Your colleagues should be able to master this easily. A date goes here @<mm/dd/yyyy> B key y/n answer @<Y> C this is a name @___ D the address @___________ E diagnostic code @___ F outcome code @___ Jamie Hockin Public Health Agency of Canada

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EpiData Entry: issue with numeric fields and legal values
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 Aug '06

02 Aug '06

Dear all, I have a problem with numeric fields of more than one digit in length, e.g. ##. All legal values (and their value labels) for the variables in my questionnaire are precoded in the CHK file. Currently, if a legal value is defined as "1", the data entry program does not accept "01" and vv: if a legal value is defined as "01" the data entry program does not accept "1". The typists usually type without looking the whole time at the screen so they prefer the legal values to be precoded 01, 02, 03 etc because if they enter "1" they would need to press ENTER before the cursor moves to the next field (which they do not need to do if the length of the field is one digit). Precoding "01" etc initially seemed to work fine, but as soon as the record is saved, when the typist needs to return to the same record, e.g. to make a correction, the value "01" is reflected as "1" on the screen, and when passing through this field again, e.g. to move to a part that is further down in the questionnaire, an error message pops up: "illegal entry", and the typists believe they should change the "1" again into "01". This is at times quite a bit of a nuisance. I think that one possible solution (I have not tried this yet) could be to define for all digits under 10 both "1", "2", "3" as well as "01", "02", etc as legal values (with the same value labels), but I think it is not very elegant. Is there another solution? PS. is there a command that can used in the CHK file to that after every entry the typist needs to press enter before the cursor moves to the next field? Thanks a lot, Henriette Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/

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RE: EpiData 3.1 - Viewing value label in data entry window?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 30 Jul '06

30 Jul '06

Thanks, I've worked it out... I needed to add this code to the start of the check file: BEFORE FILE TYPE COMMENT ALLFIELDS BLUE END cheers leanne. -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca]On Behalf Of epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sent: Saturday, 29 July 2006 3:06 AM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 33, Issue 8 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..." EpiData-list mailing list ___________________________________ Today's Topics: 1. EpiData 3.1 - Viewing value label in data entry window? (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) 2. Re: EpiData 3.1 - Viewing value label in data entry window? (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:22:52 +1000 From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] EpiData 3.1 - Viewing value label in data entry window? To: <epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca> Message-ID: <0FE7A7717D7DB745B5097135D3892EFD01CB09FC(a)accvnt71.accv.org.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Hi there all! I have a question regarding viewing value labels when I'm in the data entry window of EpiData 3.1. In the booklet called "Introduction to EpiData" it said that 'blue explanatory text' based on labels in the check file is added to the right of the field by EpiData after data entry ... this is not happening in my file. Can anyone suggest why this might be? All of my files for the data are located in the same subfolder (ie. the qes, rec and chk files for the dataset are in the one folder). many thanks in advance, Leanne. ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:46:12 -0400 From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Re: [EpiData-list] EpiData 3.1 - Viewing value label in data entry window? To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Message-ID: <44CA1524.4010402(a)binghamton.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 What sort of statement pertaining to the problematic variable(s) do you have in your check file? I've also noticed that in my version of EpiData, the blue text appears only after I tab or enter out of a variable, to the next one. Even if a record already has all its variables filled in, the blue text won't appear until I move to a variable and then tab/enter away from it. --Chris -- Christopher W. Ryan, MD SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton and Wilson Family Practice Residency, Johnson City, NY cryanatbinghamtondotedu GnuPG and PGP public keys available at http://pgp.mit.edu "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] epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca wrote: > Hi there all! > I have a question regarding viewing value labels when I'm in the data entry window of EpiData 3.1. In the booklet called "Introduction to EpiData" it said that 'blue explanatory text' based on labels in the check file is added to the right of the field by EpiData after data entry ... this is not happening in my file. Can anyone suggest why this might be? All of my files for the data are located in the same subfolder (ie. the qes, rec and chk files for the dataset are in the one folder). > many thanks in advance, > Leanne. > _______________________________________________ > EpiData-list mailing list > EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list > ------------------------------ ________________________________________ EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list End of EpiData-list Digest, Vol 33, Issue 8 *******************************************

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EpiData 3.1 - Viewing value label in data entry window?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Jul '06

28 Jul '06

Hi there all! I have a question regarding viewing value labels when I'm in the data entry window of EpiData 3.1. In the booklet called "Introduction to EpiData" it said that 'blue explanatory text' based on labels in the check file is added to the right of the field by EpiData after data entry ... this is not happening in my file. Can anyone suggest why this might be? All of my files for the data are located in the same subfolder (ie. the qes, rec and chk files for the dataset are in the one folder). many thanks in advance, Leanne.

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Please help: Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 18 Jul '06

18 Jul '06

Hi there I am currently analysing my first survey using Epidata Analysis instead of DOS Epi Info (I hated Windows EpiInfo) and have been using Epidata quite a lot for data entry, so now I am giving Analysis a go! In the DOS EpiInfo I have been able to use the "COMBINE" command to do a freq on a question where more than 1 option can be selected. Eg. Question: In which province do you primarily work? (You may choose more than 1 option) The provinces are then all listed and the respondents just tick In my Epidata REC file I have numbered all the options from 1-10. I repeated the question 4 times in the REC file, so that 4 options could be ticked (my data does not have more than 4 options ticked for this Question - I checked!) I have a dataset with 148 respondents. I know that my denominater will increase with the "combine" command, but I am interested in the percentages only. What command in Analysis will assist me with this analysis problem? Warm regards, Elize Webb School of Health Systems and Public Health University of Pretoria **************************************************************************** ******** This message and attachments are subject to a disclaimer. Please refer to www.it.up.ac.za/documentation/governance/disclaimer/ for full details. / Hierdie boodskap en aanhangsels is aan 'n vrywaringsklousule onderhewig. Volledige besonderhede is by www.it.up.ac.za/documentation/governance/disclaimer/ beskikbaar. **************************************************************************** *******

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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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searching during entry and development issues
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 12 Jun '06

12 Jun '06

On april 1st. Shavinder Singh questioned about searching principles Actually I see the comment as a wish for this: a. When searching the specification should be done in the same form as where entry is done instead of using a specific search form. b. Apart from showing the next record matching the search criteria all records matching the criteria should be shown in the same form as with AUTOSEARCH c. Or as an alternative to b, show one record at a time and find next one with F3. Clarification of issues like this will be part of the coming development plan. Including possible planning a user survey on usage etc. Comments and views welcomed. Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Convert sting to numeric - Epidata Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 Jun '06

09 Jun '06

Hello How is it possible to convert a string to a numeric value in Epidata Analysis. I have tried all the proposed solutions found on the support list, but the result is always the same 'data type mismach" I have a string variable like var1 = GHXXXXX15 And I want to make statitic(median, means ....) on the last part (15) , I can convert to a numeric value. The function to convert numeric to string exists, but no string to numeric. Thank you very much Yves Yves Dupont Institut of Public Health Rue Juliette Wijtsman 14 1050 Bruxelles Belgium Phone : 32 2 6425785 Fax : 32 2 6425410 ########################################################### Checked as being free of known viruses. Scientific Institute of Public Health, Brussels, Belgium Wetenschappelijk Instituut Volksgezondheid, Brussel, Belgi� Institut scientifique de Sant� publique, Bruxelles, Belgique Visit our website: http://www.iph.fgov.be ###########################################################

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Website now in Spanish also - try www.epidata.dk/sp and other good news
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 05 Jun '06

05 Jun '06

*Website in Spanish (Español) *31. May 06 Due to the work of Pedro Arias and with some assistance from Juan Carlos Merino (Peron) the whole website has been translated to Spanish. Other translations can be placed if someone wishes to translate parts or all. A bit later we will arrange for a news section for the translated version also. ................................................................................................................. Good news - funding received - Financing the conversion plan A first donation of roughly 7000 Euro has been received for the development plan from a Danish Medical research fund. Experimentation with possible principles for implementation of aspects of "audit trail" will start soon based on the funding. I will add a "counter" indicating at all times what percentage of the plan is currently financed. ................................................................................................................ Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Re: Sumfreq and Sumtables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Jun '06

03 Jun '06

I propose that the principle be established that any appropriate command will eventually allow weights via /w=varname To simplify syntax for many users, /sum=varname can be a synonym for /w=varname on the FREQ command and TABLES command We do not need separate sumfreq and sumtables commands. I never liked this in EpiInfo because you had to learn another command syntax and EpiInfo wasn't know for consistency of syntax. It is good practice to use the variable name COUNT (in English at least) whenever dealing with aggregated data. This becomes self documentation. We do this with an in house system for managing monster national data sets, but still will get people creating frequency tables that do not sum the COUNT variable and they wonder why every category has a frequency of 1 Jamie Hockin Public Health Agency of Canada

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WinGlue menu system
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Jun '06

03 Jun '06

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Sumfreq and Sumtables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Jun '06

03 Jun '06

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Sumfreq and Sumtables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

> Please discuss on the list if the /weight= x principle is what we > want. I have met various > needs for weighting, but assume that the simple frequency weight shown > here is sufficient. > > Regards > Hi everybody, I think there are two different situations where a WEIGTH variable should be necesary: The first situation is when working with data from epidemiologial surveillance. It is very usual that data sent to a upper level (for example National level from a regional level) are sent in an aggregated format. In order to be able to analyze this kind of data a command in the form of sumfreq disease /sum=COUNT (where COUNT is the weigth variable) is essential. The second situation is when working with data comming from a complex sampling design (Not a simple random-sample strategy). In this case it is necesary to specify not only the WEIGHT variable, but the STRATA and Primary Sampling Unit. The sintax for this situation could be something like: CFREQ VAR1 /W=WEIGHTVAR /S=STRATVAR /PSU=PSUVAR Greetings, Pedro Pedro Arias Bohigas John Ericssons gatan, 12 5 tr 112 22 Stockholm Sweden Phone (cell)+46(0)734421130

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Few suggestions about Epi Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

Dear Jens, Greetings. I hope Epi Analysis is making good progress. The graphic features are excellent addition.the Epi Ananlysis I tested old PGMs of Epi6 in Epi Analysis. Few more tweakings are further required. You know that long PGMs extendimg into pages are dealt fairly easily by Analysis.exe of Epi6.04. In Epi Analysis, when a particular set of "SELECT" commands do not select any records, the "program aborts the operation" and does not process rest of the commands of the PGM. "RECODE" command does not create e.g. age groups from age data. I strictly adopted the synytax of Epi Analysis. Analysis.exe (323 kb) of Epi info 6.04d could move mountains. It is not appropriate to compare Epi6.04 with Epi Analysis of 1.2. However Epi6 will always remain the inspiration. Long pending requirement of the portability of Epi info has been met by small sized Epidata, Epi-analysis and Flash memmory devices. Kindly keep the work going. Sincerely, Dr. Shavinder Singh

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[Fwd: RE: linux and Epidata]
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

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Sumfreq and Sumtables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

1. Sumfreq / Sumtables (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) >Has anyone an idea on how to replace Sumfreq (or sumtables) with Epidata >analysis? >Thanks! >Gilles / Paris > > > > I understand the sumfreq and sumtables command to be able to do a frequency or crosstable but instead of counting observations the counting would be made with another variable. Example from testdata: read bromar tab agegrp . freq agegrp agegrp Age (10 year intervals) No. % 10 35 0.92 20 489 12.92 30 1198 31.64 40 1337 35.31 50 642 16.96 60 75 1.98 70 9 0.24 80 1 0.03 Total 3786 100% We can now collapse or aggregate the data file like this on agegrp: . agg agegrp /close //"agg" is the same as "aggregate" AGEGRP N 10 35 20 489 30 1198 40 1337 50 642 60 75 70 9 80 1 Now if we do a frequency on agegrp: agegrp Age (10 year intervals) No. % 10 1 12.50 20 1 12.50 30 1 12.50 40 1 12.50 50 1 12.50 60 1 12.50 70 1 12.50 80 1 12.50 Total 8 100% We have one observation for each value of agegrp. 8 records or observations in total. By listing all observations we can see that the variable N tells us how many are in each agegrp: list AGEGRP N 10 35 20 489 30 1198 40 1337 50 642 60 75 70 9 80 1 So in principle we would like a "backwards" aggregate where the weight or counting is by "N":: . freq agegrp /weight=n / Age (10 | year | intervals) | Freq. Percent ------------+-------------------- 10 | 35 0.92 20 | 489 12.92 30 | 1198 31.64 40 | 1337 35.31 50 | 642 16.96 60 | 75 1.98 70 | 9 0.24 80 | 1 0.03 ------------+------------------ Total | 3,786 100.00 Unfortunately the table just shown was made in Stata not in EpiData Analysis, but I have added sumfreq and sumtables to the workplan. Please discuss on the list if the /weight= x principle is what we want. I have met various needs for weighting, but assume that the simple frequency weight shown here is sufficient. Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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RE: linux and Epidata
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 31 May '06

31 May '06

At the moment EpiData has been testet on SuSE Linus 9.3 and Fedora Core 4. If you are running KDE or Gnome on Conectiva you should be able to run EpiData using the newest version of wine. Probably you will be able to run Wine(EpiData) in other environments as well, but it has yet not been testet. The Wine HQ homepage: http://www.winehq.com/ The download page: http://www.winehq.com/site/download After installing wine, install EpiData. If wine doesn't start when you try opening EpiData, open the terminal/konsole and type: wine EpiData.exe (in the appropriate folder) Known problems using EpiData in wine: EpiData will sometimes refuse to close Errors ind the chk-file can resolut in "strange" behaviour

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Sumfreq / Sumtables
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 29 May '06

29 May '06

Has anyone an idea on how to replace Sumfreq (or sumtables) with Epidata analysis? Thanks! Gilles / Paris

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linux and Epidata
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 25 May '06

25 May '06

I am hard user of the Epidata there is a long time and I am very satisfied with the soft. Now, I wish install Epidata in operacional system Linux (Conectiva a Brazilian version) a lot similar to Mandrake. How to do that ? Epi Analysis is already in Linux working perfectly. Best regards Claudio Teixeira e-mail cteixeira(a)fmc.br ou cteixeira(a)terra.com.br Home page da Fac. de Medicina de Campos http://www.fmc.br 2006-05-25

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Problems with double entry validation - warning
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 May '06

23 May '06

During the most recent week we have seen a few problems with double-entry validation. Obiously double entry makes no sense if assumed validation is done, but in practice no validation is taking place. The three situations are: 1. Do NOT use double entry if the command AUTOSEARCH is used in the field which is used for the identification of records. 2. If the field for double entry is computed based on some other fields and that computed field only occurs after entry of a number of fields, then the validation is also problematic. 3. In a relate situation. When creating the file for double entry only the top level entries are created automatically. Not for the lower level files. For the situation number two (Created link field) it is quite obvious that the programme cannot validate entry of records before the "linking field" is created. There is no way to find out with which record to compare values in the other file before the "linking" information is created. For situation one (AUTOSEARCH) the situation is that the "pointer" to a given record might change in the autosearch field therefore creating a complicated "link" situation that changes during a given entry. For the development it is essential that such problems are reported. Following detection they are added to a list of known problems to be solved. It is good practice to verify functionality of any software before doing a lot of work in particular with complicated data structures or situations. Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Double Entry and Autosearch: Danger!
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 22 May '06

22 May '06

After having stuggled with the problem that double entry did not work properly we found a solution to the following problem: When we tried to double enter data using the "match records by fields" option, EpiData did only check the data of the first record entered. Starting with a second record we only accidentally noticed that EpiData did actually not check the data. We tried different things to overcome this problem but EpiData behaved erratic if we went back to an already entered record. This behavior is dangerous because you might think that EpiData checks your data during double entry (all the more if you encountered an entry error in the first record). The solution: If the .REC file to enter data in double check mode uses a .CHK-file, don't use "AUTOSEARCH" (at least not for the field/variable that is used in the "match records by fields" option)! You may use "KEY UNIQUE", instead. Current EpiData version: 3.1 (120306) Dirk ************************************************* Dr. Dirk Enzmann Institute of Criminal Sciences Dept. of Criminology Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 D-20146 Hamburg Germany phone: +49-(0)40-42838.7498 (office) +49-(0)40-42838.4591 (Billon) fax: +49-(0)40-42838.2344 email: dirk.enzmann(a)uni-hamburg.de www: http://www2.jura.uni-hamburg.de/instkrim/kriminologie/Mitarbeiter/Enzmann/E… *************************************************

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Can a certain feature be implemented or extended in EpiData ?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 18 May '06

18 May '06

Dirk created a very precise description of the problem of the 64k size limitation of a .not file. and asks : > Question: Is there any other solution? Is it possible to improve > EpiData such that longer .not-files are possible? Since we are in control of the software in principle anything can be extended or adapted. As previously announced a conversion plan of EpiData Entry and Analysis to opensource has been made and we are looking for financing sources for the plan. The overwhelming number of downloads, increasing number of scientific publications, field reports and courses made with EpiData Software indicates the relevance of extending and securing the software. The total cost of the reprogramming of the entry module and adaptation of analysis amounts to the price of less than 250 one year licenses for SPSS or a similar number of single user permanent licenses for Stata. (300.000 Euro). In the rewriting all known problems and limitations will be considered, including the size problem of .not files. And I am sure many of them will be fixed. Anyone having knowledge of foundations, larger projects or other sources for funding should contact me directly for further information. Once something starts coming in I will create a "barometer" of achieved funding on the website. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association. "J L at epidata.dk " (remove spaces)

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RE: [EpiData-list] size of EpiData note files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 18 May '06

18 May '06

The same problem occurs with .chk files that exceed a certain size. Currently I need to split .qes and .chk files in several parts and connect them with RELATE. For our long questionnaires, this is only in some cases due to the 999 lines limitation for the .qes file, but even if the questionnaire fits 999 lines, I need to split the .qes and .chk files because of the fact that the .chk files get truncated at their maximum size. Is it possible to improve EpiData on this point? EpiData is such a useful program for our surveys in the field. It would be really be a great improvement if this limitation was not there! Thanks a lot! Dr Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen Epidemiologist, WHO Multi-country Study Violence against Women Department of Gender, Women and Health Tel direct: +41 22 791 3106 Fax direct: +41 22 791 1585 Mobile: +41 78 730 3035 E-mail: jansenh(a)who.int Website: http://www.who.int/gender/violence/multicountry/en/ -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 17 May 2006 20:06 To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] size of EpiData note files Unfortunately, if the size of the .not-files into which user-notes and EpiData generated notes are written exceeds about 64k, the coders can't enter further comments (although notes generated "automatically" via .chk-file commands will still be added). One solution to this problem is to close EpiData and to rename the .not-file. A new start of EpiData will then generate a new .not-file automatically. However, this solution is error prone, risky, and tedious: - you have to keep track of the size of the .not-files so that the coders can always enter their comments; - you may not overwrite renamed .not-files accidentally; - you have take care to collect/archive *all* renamed .not-files; - the solution is difficult to implement if the coders work independly and should not change files directly by themselves. Question: Is there any other solution? Is it possible to improve EpiData such that longer .not-files are possible? Current EpiData version: 3.1 (120306) [Sorry for any inconvience: I send this mail a second time because the first went not through - my email-address has changed and I was not recognized as a "member" of the list] Dirk -- ************************************************* Dr. Dirk Enzmann Institute of Criminal Sciences Dept. of Criminology Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 D-20146 Hamburg Germany phone: +49-(0)40-42838.7498 (office) +49-(0)40-42838.4591 (Billon) fax: +49-(0)40-42838.2344 email: dirk.enzmann(a)uni-hamburg.de www: http://www2.jura.uni-hamburg.de/instkrim/kriminologie/Mitarbeiter/Enzman n/Enzmann.html *************************************************

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size of EpiData note files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 May '06

17 May '06

Unfortunately, if the size of the .not-files into which user-notes and EpiData generated notes are written exceeds about 64k, the coders can't enter further comments (although notes generated "automatically" via .chk-file commands will still be added). One solution to this problem is to close EpiData and to rename the .not-file. A new start of EpiData will then generate a new .not-file automatically. However, this solution is error prone, risky, and tedious: - you have to keep track of the size of the .not-files so that the coders can always enter their comments; - you may not overwrite renamed .not-files accidentally; - you have take care to collect/archive *all* renamed .not-files; - the solution is difficult to implement if the coders work independly and should not change files directly by themselves. Question: Is there any other solution? Is it possible to improve EpiData such that longer .not-files are possible? Current EpiData version: 3.1 (120306) [Sorry for any inconvience: I send this mail a second time because the first went not through - my email-address has changed and I was not recognized as a "member" of the list] Dirk -- ************************************************* Dr. Dirk Enzmann Institute of Criminal Sciences Dept. of Criminology Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 D-20146 Hamburg Germany phone: +49-(0)40-42838.7498 (office) +49-(0)40-42838.4591 (Billon) fax: +49-(0)40-42838.2344 email: dirk.enzmann(a)uni-hamburg.de www: http://www2.jura.uni-hamburg.de/instkrim/kriminologie/Mitarbeiter/Enzmann/E… *************************************************

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size of EpiData note files
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 May '06

17 May '06

Unfortunately, if the size of the .not-files into which user-notes and EpiData generated notes are written exceeds about 64k, the coders can't enter further comments (although notes generated "automatically" via .chk-file commands will still be added). One solution to this problem is to close EpiData and to rename the .not-file. A new start of EpiData will then generate a new .not-file automatically. However, this solution is error prone, risky, and tedious: - you have to keep track of the size of the .not-files so that the coders can always enter their comments; - you may not overwrite renamed .not-files accidentally; - you have take care to collect/archive *all* renamed .not-files; - the solution is difficult to implement if the coders work independly and should not change files directly by themselves. Question: Is there any other solution? Is it possible to improve EpiData such that longer .not-files are possible? Current EpiData version: 3.1 (120306) Dirk ************************************************* Dr. Dirk Enzmann Institute of Criminal Sciences Dept. of Criminology Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 D-20146 Hamburg Germany phone: +49-(0)40-42838.7498 (office) +49-(0)40-42838.4591 (Billon) fax: +49-(0)40-42838.2344 email: dirk.enzmann(a)uni-hamburg.de www: http://www2.jura.uni-hamburg.de/instkrim/kriminologie/Mitarbeiter/Enzmann/E… *************************************************

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Cuantos registros soporta/Limits in the number of records
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 11 May '06

11 May '06

(In english only the main figures) Estimado Andrés, Teóricamente EpiData Entry no tiene límitaciones en cuanto al número de registros. Se han hecho pruebas con hasta 250.000 registros (tested with 250.000 records) en un solo archivo y el programa ha funcionado. Hay una limitación en cuanto a las variables que pueden ponerse en un solo archivo QES. Se pueden incluir todas las que se quiera, pero no se puede sobrepasar el límite de 999 líneas de texto en el archivo. (999 max number of lines in a QES file) Creemos que ninguna de ellas son limitaciones importantes. Es importante recordar que si se trabaja con el editor de EpiData el tamaño máximo de un archivo QES o CHK no puede sobrepasar los 64kb. (max. size in a QES or CHK file if you want to use it with the EpiData Editor). En cuanto a EpiData Analysis, se ha probado con 100.000 registros (tested with 100.000 records), sin problemas. Espero que este sea de ayuda, Saludos Pedro Pedro Arias Bohigas John Ericssons gatan, 12 5 tr 112 22 Stockholm Sweden Phone (cell)+46(0)734421130 > Today's Topics: > > 1. cuantos registros soporta (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) > > llevo años trabajando con Epidata y estoy realizando un proyecto pero > tengo dudas sobre la capacidad de manejo del programa, cuantos > registros me soporta tranquilamente epidata y cuantos el Epidata > Analisys. > > gracias.... > > andres hincapie.

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cuantos registros soporta
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 09 May '06

09 May '06

buenas tardes.... llevo años trabajando con Epidata y estoy realizando un proyecto pero tengo dudas sobre la capacidad de manejo del programa, cuantos registros me soporta tranquilamente epidata y cuantos el Epidata Analisys. gracias.... andres hincapie. __________________________________________________ Correo Yahoo! Espacio para todos tus mensajes, antivirus y antispam ¡gratis! Regístrate ya - http://correo.espanol.yahoo.com/

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EpiData in resource limited settings?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 May '06

03 May '06

Dear EpiData users, I have interest in assessing the impact of EpiData in terms of data documentation in lab. resource limited settings, specially in the area of HIV, Malaria and TB diagnosis. My focus is how to explore if the lab staff, with basic education background, can really use the EpiData, and manage to send the data by email? I have education and work experience in relation to public health informatics, making the human/IT approach smoother, biomedicine and in data documentation. I am looking for sites interested in such idea? Thank you in advance and best regards! Ziad -- Fellowship, graduate student (April - June, 2006) Division of Infectious Disease Stanford University Division of International Health (IHCAR) - Karolinska Institutet Ziad.El-Khatib(a)ki.se

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Top of Page and clarification of histogram contents
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 02 May '06

02 May '06

Recent questions: 1. In "Epidata Entry", is it possible to create pages like in Epi-Info DOS with a mark for the page changing ? If you look in the help file under "new page" you will find: TOPOFSCREEN TopOfScreen in a fieldblock will result in the field being moved to the top of the data entry form when the user enters the field. This command can be used to mimick a change of page. Add a number to the command to indicate the number of lines that should be shown above the data entry field when the field is moved to the top of the screen. Example: TOPOFSCREEN TOPOFSCREEN 2 2. In "Epidata Analysis", for Histogramm, the command "XINC" is not working. You are right. The dialog will allow you to create a command like HISTOGRAM AGE /EDIT /XINC=10 but the option /xinc only works with scatter and line plots. The idea of a histogram is to give an overview of all data values from minimum to maximum. Whereas a bar graph will only use the values present in the data. The commands overview (read by pressing F1) should be clarified and the dialogs cleaned for non functional options. Time has not permitted this so far. ................................................................................................................................................................................... A new example of how to move values from one file to another during data entry has been placed on the http://www.epidata.dk/example.php page. Additionaly a flyer presenting EpiData software in general is now found on the main page and the download page. ................................................................................................................................................................................... Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Two questions
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 May '06

01 May '06

Hello, 1. In "Epidata Entry", is it possible to create pages like in Epi-Info DOS with a mark for the page changing ? 2. In "Epidata Analysis", for Histogramm, the command "XINC" is not working. Thank you your answer. B. Branger, FRANCE.

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Epidata with Nertworking
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Apr '06

28 Apr '06

Hi Everyone, I have a quick question, I would like to know if it is possible to use Epidata on nertwork and more than one user to use it at the same time. Regards, Zaharani

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RE: [EpiData-list] How should EpiData Analysis read a CSV (CommaSeparated File)
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 28 Apr '06

28 Apr '06

Hello! I totally agree with you Max on this question. Cheers, Bellinda -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca] On Behalf Of epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 6:35 PM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Re: [EpiData-list] How should EpiData Analysis read a CSV (CommaSeparated File) Hello Jens, I would strongly argue that a missing is a missing and a 0 (zero) is a very distinct value - hence never turn missings into zero by default... or in short: Option 2 Bests Max On 10 Mar 2006, at 10:21, epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca wrote: > A question has come up. > > Please consider how you find reading of a CSV file in analysis > appropriate: > > > In a csv file the following data is found: > id, s, pos, sex, ill > 1,.,.,f,0 > 2...... etc (rest of records) > > The data in line can be interpreted in two ways: > Option 1: > ID= 1 > s= 0.0 > pos=0.0 > SEX = "f" ill = 0 > > Option 2: > ID= 1 > s= . > pos=. > SEX = "f" ill = 0 > > In other words the question is how to read ",.," should it be: > Option 1: as 0.0 (which is current behaviour) > or Option 2: . > > Any comments on desired behaviour appreciated. > > regards > > Jens Lauritsen > EpiData Association > _______________________________________________ > EpiData-list mailing list > EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list

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Re : EpiData-list Digest, Vol 30, Issue 3
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 18 Apr '06

18 Apr '06

Hello, SPSS exports your data base towards Stata or DBASE by Using Stat Transfert. Then your data base in Epidata imports. Veiled what it is necessary to do. But I do not understand well that is what you want to do thereafter. If is to analyze you could better do it under SPSS Thanks yours Dr Jean-Paul DIBY-KONAN Médecin Santé Publique Responsable Unité Epidémiologie Institut National de Santé Publique 22 BP 1041 Abidjan 22 Rép. Côte d'Ivoire ----- Message d'origine ---- De : epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca À : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Envoyé le : Lundi, 17 Avril 2006, 5h01mn 57s Objet : EpiData-list Digest, Vol 30, Issue 3 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..." EpiData-list mailing list ___________________________________ Today's Topics: 1. Can Epidata read SPSS? (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) 2. Vedr.: [EpiData-list] Can Epidata read SPSS? (epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 11:29:43 +0200 From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] Can Epidata read SPSS? To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Message-ID: <443B7707.2000604(a)socmed.ku.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed I have a ready SPSS-file (which is awaiting the app.5000 questionnaires of 220 questions each) and want the database to be built up using Epidata in order to reduce errors. Does any of you know if (and how) Epidata can read this SPSS-file? I wanted to ask before I start writing the whole thing manually... -- Kind regards, Christina Schnohr Ph.d.-student, M.Sc.public health Department of Social Medicine Institute of Public Health Blegdamsvej 3 2200 N, Copenhagen Denmark ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:04:23 +0200 From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Vedr.: [EpiData-list] Can Epidata read SPSS? To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Message-ID: <OFE9671DB0.1BAC101C-ONC1257153.0057D810-C1257153.00582A35(a)ipm.hosp.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Convert it to Stata (using e.g. StatTransfer or saving it as a Stata-file directly from SPSS (ver 14)) and import it from the Data in/out menu in Epidata. Epidata find all your variablelabels and value labels from the SPSS file. Best regards Seniorstatistician Claus Holst Institute of Preventive Medicine Center for Health and Society Øster Søgade 18, 1 DK-1357 København K Phone +45 3338 3863 Fax +45 3332 4240 Sender: ch(a)ipm.hosp.dk The institute: http://www.ipm.hosp.dk EU projects: http://www.nugenob.org http://www.diogenes-eu.org/ epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sendt af: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca 11-04-2006 11:29 Til: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca cc: Emne: [EpiData-list] Can Epidata read SPSS? I have a ready SPSS-file (which is awaiting the app.5000 questionnaires of 220 questions each) and want the database to be built up using Epidata in order to reduce errors. Does any of you know if (and how) Epidata can read this SPSS-file? I wanted to ask before I start writing the whole thing manually... -- Kind regards, Christina Schnohr Ph.d.-student, M.Sc.public health Department of Social Medicine Institute of Public Health Blegdamsvej 3 2200 N, Copenhagen Denmark _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list ------------------------------ ________________________________________ EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list End of EpiData-list Digest, Vol 30, Issue 3 *******************************************

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Can Epidata read SPSS?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 17 Apr '06

17 Apr '06

I have a ready SPSS-file (which is awaiting the app.5000 questionnaires of 220 questions each) and want the database to be built up using Epidata in order to reduce errors. Does any of you know if (and how) Epidata can read this SPSS-file? I wanted to ask before I start writing the whole thing manually... -- Kind regards, Christina Schnohr Ph.d.-student, M.Sc.public health Department of Social Medicine Institute of Public Health Blegdamsvej 3 2200 N, Copenhagen Denmark

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RE: [EpiData-list] Searching records with same field value
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 04 Apr '06

04 Apr '06

Agree with LIST OF RECORDS suggestion and too appreciate Epidata. thanks -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2006 12:17 PM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] Searching records with same field value Dear Jens, Greetings. Thanks for the good and stable Epidata 3.1. During the database management one often updates the previously entered records. For example in the population database of households I can use the house number to search the previously entered records of many members of same household. In Epidata when I use find option using house number only one record is displayed at a time. In EPI 6.04d one could see LIST OF RECORDS with same house number at a time and choose the desired one by moving the highlighter bar over it and pressing Enter key. Procedure -1. Press Ctrl-F key. 2. Enter specific house number in the House number field. 3. Press F3 key. That displays the list of previously entered records with the same house number. Hence specific record could be located for editing purpose. Epidata does not have that option at present. Please explore the possibity of incorporating similar option in the Epidata also. This option ia really helpful in large population databases. Once again thanks for this wonderful and stable freeware. Please convey my best wishes to Epidata team. Sincerely, Dr. Shavinder Singh Department of Community Medicine Christian Medical College, Ludhiana 141008 Punjab India

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RE: [EpiData-list] error messages
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 04 Apr '06

04 Apr '06

Greetings. What happens if you have more than 1 need of the INI file? Suppose you have a 'system' for PMTCT with INI needs and a VCT system with different INI needs and etc. Would one create subfolders under Program files with different names for the .EXE and .INI files? Would not be a problem if on a single USER system but, what about the SYS administrator of several systems? Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 2:44 AM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Re: [EpiData-list] error messages This problem will occure in every place where user's don't have admin privilege. The (micrososft) recommended procedure is to put the executable in program file and only executable (wich include dll's) and all other data in the "documents and settings" folder. This mean that INI file wich is a setting file should also be in this folder. But if everybody agree whit that, I suppose that the program should be modified. Gilles Desve epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca a écrit : > Yes, we've come across the same problem this week, also happens when > you try to exit the browse window. It only happens on those computers > in the office without admin privileges. > > Tony > > -----Original Message----- > From: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > [mailto:epidata-list-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca] On Behalf Of > epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Sent: Thursday, 30 March 2006 6:31 AM > To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > Subject: [EpiData-list] error messages > > > I've set up a data entry routine at one of the office computers. A > colleague ran into these error messages: > > when trying to run documentation->codebook > > Cannot create file file c:\program files\~epdlog1.tmp > > and when trying to exit (file->exit) > > Error writing to .INI file c:\program files\epidata\epidata.ini > > I'm guessing this would happen if the colleague does not have > permission to write to the c:\program files directory. Does that > sound right to others? > > Thanks. > > Richard Herrell > NIH > > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ > countries) for 2¢/min or less. > _______________________________________________ > EpiData-list mailing list > EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list > > <!D2S:tonys@burnet.edu.au/good/b401dd18e8b8cfb/> > > _______________________________________________ > EpiData-list mailing list > EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list > > > -- Dr Gilles DESVE Directeur technique Tél : 01 53 02 40 61 ------------- EpiConcept ----------- Systèmes d'Information en Santé 47, rue de Charenton - 75012 PARIS 01 53 02 40 60 Fax : 01 53 02 40 62 --------- www.epiconcept.fr --------- Ce message et toutes les pièces jointes sont établis à l'intention exclusive de ses destinataires et sont confidentiels. Si vous recevez ce message par erreur, merci de le détruire et d'en avertir l'expéditeur.

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Lost information
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 03 Apr '06

03 Apr '06

Hi, Recently, we have lost part of information in the data entry file that we've entered earlier, and I'm wondering if someone else have experienced similar problems. Recently, our data entry staff found that information she had entered the other day disappeared from the file, mainly the ID variable two other variables next to it. The strange thing is that not all of the cases lost the information. Only about one-third of cases lost this information. We're investigating how this happened, and before concluding it might be results of human errors, I'd like to check if this kind of accident has happened to someone else. We're using EpiData 2.01 version. Thank you, Jin

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Searching records with same field value
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 01 Apr '06

01 Apr '06

Dear Jens, Greetings. Thanks for the good and stable Epidata 3.1. During the database management one often updates the previously entered records. For example in the population database of households I can use the house number to search the previously entered records of many members of same household. In Epidata when I use find option using house number only one record is displayed at a time. In EPI 6.04d one could see LIST OF RECORDS with same house number at a time and choose the desired one by moving the highlighter bar over it and pressing Enter key. Procedure -1. Press Ctrl-F key. 2. Enter specific house number in the House number field. 3. Press F3 key. That displays the list of previously entered records with the same house number. Hence specific record could be located for editing purpose. Epidata does not have that option at present. Please explore the possibity of incorporating similar option in the Epidata also. This option ia really helpful in large population databases. Once again thanks for this wonderful and stable freeware. Please convey my best wishes to Epidata team. Sincerely, Dr. Shavinder Singh Department of Community Medicine Christian Medical College, Ludhiana 141008 Punjab India

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RE: [EpiData-list] second try: order of missing valuesindocument->codebook
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 30 Mar '06

30 Mar '06

I gave it a try: - When the variable is NUMERIC (as it is the case in your file), missing (.) values appear at the end of the tabulation. When it is STRING, missing (.) values appear at the top of the tabulation as follows: var1S -------------------------------------------------------------------- var1S type: Texte majuscule Libellés des codes: libellé_var1s manquant: 3/7 valeurs uniques: 4 tabulation: Freq. P.100 Valeur Libellé 3 42.9 . 1 14.3 1 1 1 14.3 2 2 2 28.6 3 3 var2N -------------------------------------------------------------------- var2N type: Numérique Libellés des codes: libellé_var1s manquant: 3/7 fourchette: [2 ; 3] valeurs uniques: 3 tabulation: Freq. P.100 Valeur Libellé 3 42.9 2 2 1 14.3 3 3 3 42.9 . Note: as shown in your example, there is a redundancy in the checkblock: the variable is controlled by a list if valid values ('label_ramde7'), AND there a Range command (0-10,98). As it is already controlled by the list, it is not useful to control it twice with 'Range - legal'. Choose either of the 2 control systems, remove the other one, and check again. ______________________________________________ Gilles DELMAS Institut de Veille Sanitaire Dept. Maladies Infectieuses, Unité infections entériques, alimentaires et zoonoses 12 rue du Val d'Osne 94415 Saint-Maurice cedex - France + 33 1 41 79 67 27 g.delmas(a)invs.sante.fr ______________________________________________ -----Message d'origine----- De : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Envoyé : mardi 28 mars 2006 00:00 À : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Objet : RE: [EpiData-list] second try: order of missing valuesindocument->codebook That variable is a 2 digit number created with ## in the qes file. Here's the rest of the info about the variable in the codebook: type: Number value labels: label_ramde7 range/legal: 0-10,98 missing: 6/52 range: [3 ; 10] unique values: 8 epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca wrote: What kind of variable is it? This shouldn't happen id the variable is numeric. -----Message d'origine----- De : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Envoyé : vendredi 24 mars 2006 23:40 À : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Objet : [EpiData-list] second try: order of missing values indocument->codebook Didn't hear from anyone, so I'm trying again (sorry). I have been creating a dataset using epidata. I was looking through the documentation->codebook to get a sense of the distribution ofvalues for thevariables. I just noticed that the missing values (.) appear at an almost random point in the otherwise ordered list (in this example,between 9 and 10). I compared the codebook with SAS tables and the data appear to be correct. tabulation: Freq. Pct. Value Label 2 3.8 3 1 1.9 4 2 3.8 5 6 11.5 7 7 13.5 8 7 13.5 9 6 11.5 . 21 40.4 10 Any ideas why this might happen? thanks. Richard Herrell NIH --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. _______________________________________________ EpiData-list mailing list EpiData-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list --------------------------------- Blab-away for as little as 1¢/min. Make PC-to-Phone Calls using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.

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RE: [EpiData-list] second try: order of missing values indocument->codebook
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 30 Mar '06

30 Mar '06

What kind of variable is it? This shouldn't happen id the variable is numeric. -----Message d'origine----- De : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Envoyé : vendredi 24 mars 2006 23:40 À : epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Objet : [EpiData-list] second try: order of missing values indocument->codebook Didn't hear from anyone, so I'm trying again (sorry). I have been creating a dataset using epidata. I was looking through the documentation->codebook to get a sense of the distribution ofvalues for thevariables. I just noticed that the missing values (.) appear at an almost random point in the otherwise ordered list (in this example,between 9 and 10). I compared the codebook with SAS tables and the data appear to be correct. tabulation: Freq. Pct. Value Label 2 3.8 3 1 1.9 4 2 3.8 5 6 11.5 7 7 13.5 8 7 13.5 9 6 11.5 . 21 40.4 10 Any ideas why this might happen? thanks. Richard Herrell NIH --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

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second try: order of missing values in document->codebook
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 24 Mar '06

24 Mar '06

Didn't hear from anyone, so I'm trying again (sorry). I have been creating a dataset using epidata. I was looking through the documentation->codebook to get a sense of the distribution ofvalues for thevariables. I just noticed that the missing values (.) appear at an almost random point in the otherwise ordered list (in this example,between 9 and 10). I compared the codebook with SAS tables and the data appear to be correct. tabulation: Freq. Pct. Value Label 2 3.8 3 1 1.9 4 2 3.8 5 6 11.5 7 7 13.5 8 7 13.5 9 6 11.5 . 21 40.4 10 Any ideas why this might happen? thanks. Richard Herrell NIH --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

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re: variable names
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 Mar '06

23 Mar '06

You can change this by selecting the option to use the first word as the field name (under File, Options, Create data file tab). This is described in the help files. You may have to reset your options when you install a new version. There is a newer version on epidata.dk now (12 March 2006) Jamie ============================= In the latest version of Epidata (12012006) field names is not functioning well. I choose field names to be the first word in the line and the software assigne the name with 10 first characters in the line. I can change field names but it is a lot of work. Is it any other solution? Luciana Petrucci Gigante

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First word versus first 10 characters for field naming in EpiData Entry v3.1 (12012006)
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 Mar '06

23 Mar '06

We are looking into this problem, which is an error in the installation routine NOT in the actual software once installed. To get the correct behaviour you desire do this: 1. Start epidata.exe 2. Go into the options (see file menu) 3. Choose the "Create data file" part 4. Select either "first word" or "automatic" as you please. The issue in relation to installation will be solved, but until so do as shown in point 1-4. Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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Field names
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 23 Mar '06

23 Mar '06

In the latest version of Epidata (12012006) field names is not functioning well. I choose field names to be the first word in the line and the software assigne the name with 10 first characters in the line. I can change field names but it is a lot of work. Is it any other solution? Luciana Petrucci Gigante luciana(a)homemail.com

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tabulation in documentation->codebook
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 22 Mar '06

22 Mar '06

I have been creating a dataset using epidata. I was looking through the documentation->codebook to get a sense of the distribution of values for the variables. I just noticed that the missing values appear at an almost random point in the otherwise ordered list (in this example, between 9 and 10). tabulation: Freq. Pct. Value Label 2 3.8 3 1 1.9 4 2 3.8 5 6 11.5 7 7 13.5 8 7 13.5 9 6 11.5 . 21 40.4 10 Any ideas why this might happen? thanks. Richard Herrell NIH --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

1 0