1- CHK file size: I use to edit most of my chk files with an editor (metapad is the most convenient I could find, and it's freeware); I use to work with quite large chk files, and I never noticed anything wrong with opening it with an expernal text editor.
2- Variables deleted from the qes file: No, variables will not be removed from the check file. Here is what to do:
1st time you try to enter dada after the QES has been modified:
Display: 'Revise data from revised revised QES file?' Click Yes
Display: The revised QES file will cause loss of data in these fields... (list of fields that have been removed) click "Accept"
Then, warning displays: "Could not apply checks (...)" click Yes. The CHK file opens on the left side of the screen, while a log file explaining where the detected errors are. Move (left) to the concerned area (ex: variable DATA1 has been removed. Go to the line containing checks for DATA1, and delete all lines from this block (from DATA1 to the last END of the block). You should also use the 'Find' feature to look for DATA1 within the whole chk file (in case other variables refer to it in their checks) and remove all DATA1 occurrences.
Gilles Delmas InVS Paris
-----Message d'origine----- De : epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Envoyé : vendredi 18 novembre 2005 22:26 À : epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca Objet : RE: [EpiData-list] new to epidata: 2 questions
Many thanks to all of you who answered my questions.
Here's another one. I need to removed a number of variables and revise the .chk file to correspond to the .rec file. The easiest thing to do would be to make the changes in an editor (notepad, e.g.). The Epidata documentation says that a .chk file may not be more than 64K (I believe) if it is being created in an editor. The .chk file is now about 108K. Does this mean I can't make the changes in an editor?
Richard Herrell NIMH
2 I've discovered I need to delete a number of variables from the data file. This seems straightforward since I can simply delete them from the .qes file and they will be deleted from the .rec file. What happens to the .chk file when I open the new .rec file with deleted variables? Will Epidata revise the .chk file by deleting the checks for variables that no longer exist?
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