Data Management Tools
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Introduction

The Market Simulator includes some data management tools that can be useful for some situations. These tools are accessed from the Tools menu, and include:

   View/Edit Data
   Index
   Data Doctor
   Optimize Study files

This section describes the purpose and use for these data management tools.


View/Edit Data

The Market Simulator lets you view the respondent numbers and any segmentation variables that have been merged into the conjoint part-worth data. (You cannot view the part-worths themselves through this option.)

When you click Tools | View/Edit Data, a dialog is displayed with three separate tabs: Respondents, View Respondent Data and Edit Respondent Data.

Respondents Tab

When you click the Respondents tab, SMRT reads the .IDX file located in the study directory, which provides an index of the .DAT file (pointers to the location of data segments within a .DAT file) including a list of the respondent numbers. Respondent numbers are initially displayed in sorted order (by default) and an asterisk following a number indicates a gap in the sequence.

Note that SMRT does not read the studyname.DAT file to generate the report on this tab. Therefore, if your .IDX file for some reason has become corrupted or for some reason does not match (pertain to) the .DAT file, it is possible to see information on this tab that is really not in the .DAT file. To ensure that the information in the .IDX file matches the .DAT file, you should run either Tools | Index, or Tools | Data Doctor.

CloseCloses the current dialog.  
PrintPrints the information displayed on the screen.  
New DiskLets you view or edit data in another directory or floppy disk.  
Filter(Drop down list). This drop-down list lets you filter the respondents to be displayed by complete/incompletes or a particular disposition. It also lets you view summary counts of the number of respondents by disposition or status (these disposition and status codes are a carryover from Sawtooth Software's Ci3 system, and are not relevant to the Market Simulator).  
SortBy default, the respondent numbers in this window have been sorted in ascending order. Note that the actual order of the records in the file will likely be different. If you uncheck the Sort box, the actual order of the respondent records is displayed. Note that this check box only changes the order in which the records are displayed on the screen, it doesn't actually change their order in the data file.  
DispositionDisplays the disposition codes (applies to Ci3 data only—see the Ci3 manual for more details) for each respondent record.  

View Respondent Data Tab

This dialog reads the information from the studyname.DAT file and displays any segmentation data that you may have merged with the conjoint part-worths.

If not all of the merged information can be displayed within the window, you can use the scroll bar at the right of the dialog box to see values for later variables. You can scroll through data for different respondents by clicking on the double left-or-right arrows at the bottom of the dialog box. Alternatively, you can select a different respondent by clicking on that respondent's number at the left of the screen.

CloseCloses the current dialog.  
PrintPrints the information displayed on the screen.  
<< and >>These buttons let you move between adjacent records in your data file.  
New DiskLets you view or edit data in another directory or floppy disk.  

Edit Respondent Data

This dialog shows detailed information on each respondent, permitting editing the values for merged information or changing the respondent number.

The Answer: field lets you change the value of any response.

You can make tentative editing changes to answers that will not become permanent until you say that you want to retain them.

If you click the Change Respondent Number button in the upper right hand corner, a box appears in which you can provide a different respondent number. You change a respondent number by typing in a different respondent number, and then clicking on OK. Unlike segmentation variable values that you change, a respondent number change is made immediately, and you will not have the opportunity to decide that this change should be ignored.

You can also delete this respondent if you like. You do that by clicking the box labeled Delete This Respondent. A check mark appears in the box, indicating that the respondent will be deleted. If individual-level utility runs have been saved, the utility data will also be deleted for this respondent. If you change your mind you can click that box a second time and remove the check mark.
You can move from one merged segmentation variable to the next by scrolling with the double arrows at the bottom of the dialog box, or scrolling in the box in which the question (variable) name is displayed. When you have finished with this respondent, click the Respondents Tab at the top of the dialog box to again see the list of respondents with data in this file, and select another respondent number. Then click again on the Edit Respondent Data tab, and you will be able to edit that respondent's data.

When you make changes to the data file, they are recorded in a file named questionnaire.log. That file is in text-only format and can be viewed by any editor or word processor.

CloseWhen you click the Close button, any changes you made to the data are made permanent. You can make modifications to multiple records before clicking the Close button.  
 
<< and >>These buttons let you move between adjacent records in your data file.  
 
New DiskLets you view or edit data in another directory or floppy disk.  
 
Delete This Respondent  
Deletes the current respondent (when you click the Close button).  
 
Change Respondent Number     
Lets you change the case identification number. This change is made immediately rather than when you click the Close button.  
Index…

The data file (studyname.DAT) used by SMRT is always accompanied by an Index file (studyname.IDX). This file contains information about where each respondent's data are located within the file.

If your studyname.IDX file gets lost or corrupted, you can easily regenerate it by clicking this option. By default, the software will re-index the file within your study directory. You can also regenerate lost or corrupted .IDX files in other directories (or your floppy drive) by specifying a different path.


Data Doctor…

The Data Doctor is a utility for repairing data files (studyname.dat) that have become corrupted.

Occasionally, sectors on disks fail or hardware doesn't properly record the data. With very large data sets and tens of thousands of respondents, data corruption or loss becomes increasingly likely. Sometimes a single corrupted record in the middle of a data file makes it impossible for the Market Simulator to understand how to deal with the subsequent respondents. Other times, the information at the top of the data file is corrupted so that the Market Simulator doesn't even know how to begin.

The Data Doctor analyzes a .DAT file and checks it for validity, skipping non-critical sections of the file if it finds errors in them. The user is prompted as to what action to take for each error encountered. This process can be slow with large data files.
The Data Doctor can operate on the accumulated data file in the study directory, or on any other drive/directory.


Optimize Study Files…

This tool is used to optimize the study files (.SMT, .QNR and .UCS), removing information no longer needed. For example, when you delete a utility run (from the .UCS), the section is only marked for deletion until you choose Optimize Study Files.

Optimizing study files will help speed access to information in those files.