Question about how the information inside each .dat file generated by SSI Web is displayed

Hi all,

I searched the documentation and I found nothing, so I guess I already know the answer, I just want a confirmation of that :] Does someone knows if it is possible to change the layout of the information inside each .dat file generated by SSI Web (i. e., how it is organized the information)?

I'll give a pratical example:

Currently, the generated .dat file goes something like this:

(...)
Items      2       5
(...)


The thing is, these are the IDs of the items in a general list of items, but in fact it contains different levels, containing different factors. So, for instance, item 1 and 2 are the level 1 and level 2 respectively of the same factor (let's call it factor "A", for simplicity's sake), and item 3, 4, 5 are 3 different levels of factor "B".

So the ideal thing would be something like this (applied to the previous example):

(...)
Factor     A      B
Items      2      3
(...)


I don't know if I'm being sufficiently explicit. Of course I can manipulate the lists, separating each set of different levels for the same factor in their own list, but that will be too complex, and if there is a more simple method it would be much easier for me.

I guess that another option would be doing an excel / libreoffice macro to rearrange the file as I wish, although I don't have experience with that.

Anybody knows if there is a third, more simple approach? :]
asked Apr 30, 2012 by João Fernandes (1,500 points)
edited Sep 13, 2012 by Walter Williams
Which type of study is this? Didn't look familoar
It's a CiW study, with some free format / select /  open-end questions (in my previous example, "Items" is the name of a list).
version? I've been using SSIWeb for a long time now and .dat files certainly don't look like that...
7.0.26. This appears by opening the .dat file in Excel / LibreOffice Calc. If you want, I can send you a sample file.

Truly, what I want is the ability of change some values after the questionnaires take place (in the example I have been using, turn "5" into "3", etc).
and this is what I see when I open a .dat file in notepad...
4   10          51332922957  182     673874  1332921791  Theend                                  
sys_UserAgent,Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; SynBrows TR SLXAK2.0; InfoPath.2)
sys_Browser,MSIE 6.0
sys_OperatingSystem,Windows XP
sys_IPAddress,88.247.129.95
sys_UserJavaScript,1
Username,1001
Password,1001
RejectedBrand_6,0
RejectedBrand_13,0
RejectedBrand_2,0
RejectedBrand_10,1

each question's answer is on a single line and you can easily change the data (for whatever strange reason you may have)
I guess I'm not being perfectly clear.

A sample of my .dat file:

sys_OperatingSystem    Windows    7
sys_IPAddress    127.0.0.1    
sys_UserJavaScript    1    
PerguntaVAS1_v1    37    
Question1    3    4
RandomQuestions    6    2
sys_pagetime_2    14162    
PerguntaVAS2_v1    11    
Question2    3    1
sys_pagetime_3    12884    


I appears like this, opened in excel after setting space, tab and comma as separators. Taking this line, for instance:

Question2    3    1


Let's interpret it. Imagine that you have 2 factors, one called Price and another one called Colour. In the list of items I have, 1 and 2 are the two levels of factor "Price", and 3 and 4 are also both levels for factor "Colour". So, if I have "3" and "1" in this line, it means that the respondent was presented with the first level of factor Colour ("3") and the first level of factor Price ("1"). What I ideally want is to appear in this case "1" in the first column and "1" also in the second one (since both values are the first level of the 2 factors, simply put, a factor by column). I don't know If I'm being clear, and certainly I don't know if I can do this inside SSI Web...

Thanks,
João
the only lines that I've seen multiple entries on a single line are constructed lists...
normally it is strictly one answer per line.

I did not understand your ultimate motive here, let me just say it is not very safe to play around with the data manually, you may end up with issues while exporting.

ps send me a copy of your ssi if you want and let me have a look

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