[DDI-users] QuestionGrid and InParameter/@limitArrayIndex in DDI 3.2

[Wackerow, Joachim]

I understand this.

There seems to be room for different usage of arrays in this context. This can be confusing.
I see a couple of questions regarding array and limitArrayIndex:


1.      The array is an output of QuestionGrid. It is not documented how the array is constructed. Row by column (like in math matrices) or column by row?

2.      Is the array an one-dimensional array or a two-dimensional array (in case of complex grids)?

3.      limitArrayIndex is defined as NMTOKENS which means multiple blank-separated tokens can be used. What is the meaning of the first token, the second, the third?

4.      What is really the purpose of a range of the array?

In my understanding each cell which represents a kind of question in a complex question grid can result in one variable. Therefore I don’t understand the purpose of multiple values in limitArrayIndex. I guess I miss some use case.

Achim


From: ddi-users-bounces at icpsr.umich.edu [mailto:ddi-users-bounces at icpsr.umich.edu] On Behalf Of Wendy Thomas
Sent: Montag, 14. Dezember 2015 15:38
To: Data Documentation Initiative Users Group
Subject: Re: [DDI-users] QuestionGrid and InParameter/@limitArrayIndex in DDI 3.2

Any InParameter or OutParameter can indicate that it is an array.

An InParameter can also state that if this is an array it may only accept a certain item or range in the array as its content. So if I get an array response from a QuestionGrid I could specify which items in the array I needed. For example if the grid asked for the number of employees and Wage/Salary, I could specify just the items in the array providing the number of employees for use in a generation instruction. In the same way a Variable that is repeated for each person in the family could assign the InParameter of the Variable to be only the 0 position of the array for person 1, 1 position for person 2, etc. (assuming a zero based array).

Wendy

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 11:27 AM, Wackerow, Joachim <Joachim.Wackerow at gesis.org<mailto:Joachim.Wackerow at gesis.org>> wrote:
This is a DDI 3.2 question.

I’m wondering how the attribute limitArrayIndex can be used with multiple tokens. What is the purpose of this? How is the order of the tokens related to a complex QuestionGrid?

Background
---
In general:
QuestionGrid can have an OutParameter. This can be bound to an InParameter of a Command of a GenerationInstruction.

The simple case:
One line in a QuestionGrid represents one question which results in one variable. A single value could be bound by InParameter/@limitArrayIndex [0] which would be the result of the first line; InParameter/@limitArrayIndex[1] the result of the second line etc.

Some complex cases:
One line in a QuestionGrid represents multiple questions and results in multiple variables.
One line in a QuestionGrid represents one question where multiple answers are allowed. The result can be a computed variable on the basis of the multiple answers or can be multiple variables.
---

I thought it is possible to use single values of the array by defining multiple bindings for the above mentioned QuestionGrids. What is then the purpose of multiple tokens of limitArrayIndex? Is it related to the use with this kind of QuestionGrids?

The documentation of limitArrayIndex says only:
“When the InParameter represents an array of items, this attribute specifies the index identification of the items within the zero-based array which should be treated as input parameters. If not specified, the full array is treated as the input parameter.”

Any comment appreciated.

Achim





_______________________________________________
DDI-users mailing list
DDI-users at icpsr.umich.edu<mailto:DDI-users at icpsr.umich.edu>
http://lists.icpsr.umich.edu/mailman/listinfo/ddi-users



--
Wendy L. Thomas                              Phone: +1 612.624.4389
Data Access Core Director                 Fax:   +1 612.626.8375
Minnesota Population Center             Email: wlt at umn.edu<mailto:wlt at umn.edu>
University of Minnesota
50 Willey Hall
225 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.icpsr.umich.edu/pipermail/ddi-users/attachments/20151214/f7297930/attachment.html