Data Handling

Databases and ASCII files are the survey equivalent of housework—unglamorous and only noticed when they're not taken care of.

Planning and Restructuring

Whether at the survey draft stage or when you're trying to crunch the results, sometimes the database needs a bit of rearranging:

• Integrating several survey versions into one system
• Modifying the values used in fields, or underlying field type
• Preparing files for transfer to another system
• Incorporating external information into a questionnaire, such as purchase history or attendee badge data

Data Cleaning

Even with Web surveys or kiosks where there's no data entry, you'll still need a touch of data cleaning to get the highest quality information:

• Clearing empty, duplicate, or invalid submissions from the file
• Consolidating Other responses and short text values such as cities or products so they can be counted
• Coding comments and other verbatims into categories such as "Front desk," "Room service," or "Compliment."