• asking how many hours a week respondents spend doing different things
• asking how much money respondents spent on different activities during a visit
• asking respondents to share a fixed amount or percentage between a set of options

The amount allocated to each option gives the relative importance of each. This gives good numeric data for analysis, but is quite difficult for respondents.

This worksheet shows you how to calculate a running total as the respondent completes the answers. It explains how to create a set of Open Series First and Open Series Next questions for quantity responses and put a running total into the final response. It also shows you how to set a valid range on the total, so that respondents cannot move to the next page if the total has overrun.

Please note: The Open Series First and Open Series Next question styles are new in Snap XMP Desktop. If you are using a survey that has been upgraded from Snap 11 Professional then the equivalent question style is Open Grid First and Open Grid Next.

Step 1: Create your set of questions

The first step is to create the group of questions that need to be totalled. These must be quantity questions.

1. In Snap XMP Desktop, open the survey in the Questionnaire window.
2. Click New Question to create a new question.
3. Select Open Series First as the question style
4. Select Response in the next dropdown then select Quantity as the response type.

5. Enter the question text, for example “How did you spend your day at the activity centre? Please allocate hours to the activities up to a maximum of 8 hours.”
6. Enter the first activity in the grid label.
7. Press Tab to create the next question in the list. By default, the next question added is an Open Series Next question with a Quantity response. Enter another activity in the grid label. Repeat until you have entered all the activities.
8. Add an extra grid question to display the running total.

9. Click Save to save the questionnaire.

Step 2: Display the total in the calculated field and set the valid range

1. Select the open series question that will display the total.
2. Click Variable Properties to open the Variable Properties dialog.
3. In this example, the total hours have a valid range of 0 to 8. Scroll to the Valid property and enter 0 to 8.

4. Scroll to the Initial Value property and enter the total: Q1a+Q1b+Q1c+Q1d+Q1e. When the open series entries change the value of the total field is updated when the respondent moves to the next entry. The questions used in the total calculation must always be asked earlier in the questionnaire.

5. By default, the Read Only property is set to No. This allows the respondent to edit the total field. In this example, the total should not be edited so set the Read Only property to Yes. This renames the Initial Value property to the Calculation property.

6. Click OK.
7. Click Save to save the questionnaire.
8. When the questionnaire is complete. Publish the survey in Snap XMP Desktop or Snap XMP Online.

If there is a topic you would like a worksheet on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com

The post Creating running totals appeared first on SnapSurveys.

The initial value is set in the Variable Details window or Variable Properties window.

In the Variable Details window, the Initial Value field is shown when you click Toggle Definitions .

The Initial Value property is also available in the Variable Properties dialog opened from the Questionnaire window.

Note that the Initial Value is not available for Paradata variables or Note variables.

Using the Initial Value property

In this example, the questionnaire is set up to ask about the number of people in the participant’s party. The values that the participant enters can be used to set the initial value for a question about the number of people in the party who ordered food.

In this questionnaire, Q2 is an Open Series question asking for the number of adults and children in a group of people at a restaurant and Q3 is an Open Ended question asking how many people in the party ordered food. Usually everyone orders food so the default for Q3 is the total number of people in Q2.

The questions are created using the following step by step instructions:

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window with Design mode set.
2. Click New Question   on the Questionnaire toolbar to insert a question.
3. Select the Open Series style from the Style Selection Box on the toolbar.
4. In the area marked “Click here for text”, enter “How many people were in your party today?”
5. Click Variable Properties on the Questionnaire toolbar. This opens the Variable Properties dialog.
6. In the Variable Properties change the
   • Response: Quantity
   • Label: Adults
7. Insert another entry with the properties
   • Response: Quantity
   • Label: Children.

8. Insert another Open Ended question to be used to show the number of people who ordered food. Again set the Response to Quantity.

9. Click Variable Properties on the Questionnaire toolbar. This opens the Variable Properties dialog.
10. Type Q2a+Q2b in the Initial Value to show the total number of people in the party. When an expression is used this automatically sets the Read Only property to Yes. Setting the Read Only property to Yes prevents a respondent overwriting or answering the question.

11. This question needs to be on the following page so insert a page break above this question.

12. When the questionnaire is running the participant enters the numbers in each question.

13. On the next page of the questionnaire the total number of people is used as the default.

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The validation includes:

• making a question mandatory , where the participant must answer it
• setting the maximum length for a free format text answer
• adding a pattern, such as a date or email address, that the answer needs to match
• setting a minimum number of answers for multiple response questions
• setting a maximum number of answers for multiple response questions
• setting the ordering of the code values with the ability to exclude some codes from the ordering
• setting an initial value for a question
• making a question read only

The Validation & Masking menu can be found in the Build side menu.

Making a question mandatory

 When the Mandatory box is ticked the respondent must give an answer to the question asked. The Mandatory option is available for all question types.

Setting the minimum number of answers

You can set the minimum number of answers for multiple response questions. This feature is set in the Validation and Masking side menu.

The Mandatory option needs to be set on before the Min answers drop down list is enabled.

Select the Min answers from the drop down list. Here the minimum number of answers is 1.

Setting the maximum number of answers

You can set the maximum number of answers for multiple response questions. This feature is set in the Validation and Masking side menu.

Select the Max answers from the drop down list. Here the maximum number of answers is 2. The respondent can choose up to 2 answers for this question.

Making an answer mutually exclusive

A mutually exclusiveanswer can only be selected on its own. This can be used when there are several answers to choose from alongside answers such as, “Other” or “Don’t Know”. If these answers are selected by the respondent you may want to deselect or prevent the other answers being selected. This can be done by setting an answer to be mutually exclusive.

1. Select the question that you would like to set with a mutually exclusive answer.
2. Select the Validation & masking side menu.
3. Go to the Mutually-exclusive options.
4. Select the box next to the answer or answers that are mutually exclusive.

5. Selecting a mutually exclusive code in a multiple response question will clear all other codes. If you select another code after a mutually exclusive code, then the mutually exclusive code is cleared.

Ordering

To avoid any interview bias, it is possible to rotate or re-order the codes of a question. The codes are re-ordered each time the question is shown in an interview, according to the ordering option selected.

During the interview the question codes are re-arranged in the specified order. The code numbers remain the same and the response is recorded against the correct answer code.

The available ordering options are

• None: the codes are always presented in the order shown.
• Inverse: the codes are presented in reverse order in successive interviews.
• Forward: the codes move forward on successive interviews.
• Random: The codes are randomly re-arranged for each interview.

You can set ordering in the Validation and Masking side menu in the Build tab.

1. Select the question that you wish to order
2. Select the Validation & masking side menu.
3. Go to the Ordering option.
4. In Method select the type of ordering.

Excluding codes from the ordering

There is often a requirement to leave some codes in their original positions, for example, when the question contains a code such as “Other” or “None of the above”. These codes are usually displayed at the end of the list of choices. You can exclude final codes from the ordering by specifying the code value(s) to exclude in the Exclude field. This can be a single number or a comma separated list, but must include the final code.

You can exclude codes in the Validation and Masking side menu in the Build tab.

1. Select the question where you wish to exclude codes.
2. Select the Validation & masking side menu.
3. Go to the Ordering option.
4. In Exclude enter the code or codes to exclude from the ordering.

For example, a question has 6 codes with “None of the above” as the last code. In Exclude, enter 6 to exclude the final code. When the question is shown in an interview, code 6 will remain in its original position and codes 1 to 5 will be ordered randomly.

Initial Value

An initial value can be set for a question. This value is selected or displayed in the question when a participant is completing the questionnaire. The Initial Value field can be set to a code, literal constant or an expression using values from the preceding questions, depending on the question style.

The initial value is set in the Validation and Masking side menu in the Build section.

1. Select the question where you wish to exclude codes.
2. Select the Validation & masking side menu.
3. Go to the Initial Value option.
4. In Value, enter the code, literal or expression.

For example, in a single choice question enter 1 to select the first code.

For an example on how to set the initial value using an expression a questionnaire is set up with Q2 is an Open Series question asking for the number of adults and children in a group of people at a restaurant and Q3 is an Open Ended question asking how many people in the party ordered food. Usually everyone orders food so the default for Q3 is the total number of people in Q2.

Select Q3 and in Value, enter the expression Q2a + Q2b so the initial value in Q3 defaults to the total number of people entered in Q2.

Read Only

When a question is set as Read only this prevents the participant from answering or overwriting that question during an interview.

The read only property may be used where:

• the question is seeded with values from a participant database that you do not want the participant to change
• the question contains an initial value that is based on answers to previous questions in the survey that you do not want the participant to change

You can set a question as read only in the Validation and Masking side menu in the Build section.

1. Select the question where you wish to exclude codes.
2. Select the Validation & masking side menu.
3. Go to the Initial Value option.
4. In Read only, select Yes to prevent the participant from changing the question, or No to allow the participant to edit the question.

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