A Marginal provides a count of every position (column) by case. Running a marginal analysis is a way of listing out counts, percents and means for all column values within your data file. By checking the results of a marginal against the expectations of a data format, you should be able to discover any “dirty” data or verify assumptions about your data.
| Note: The Run|Marginal option is only enabled for ASCII fixed (*) data files. |
Codes other than 0 through 9 or X and Y are shown in the column entitled, "Other". If desired, marginal options let you restrict the report to certain columns and records.
Run|Frequency is an alternative way of checking the contents of a field.
Choose File|Save|Save Report As if you would like to save the report. If you do not save the file, it is overwritten when you run another marginal report.
Options
Mean
Choose Mean to include the mean for the column. The calculation for the mean includes values 0-9 only.
Percent
Choose Percent to show percents on the marginal report.
Filter to Total answering
Filter to Total answering calculates percents off the total answer column rather than the total respondents in the data file.
Suppress blank positions
Suppress blank positions prevents blank positions from being displayed or printed on the Marginal report.
Show blank cells with dashes
Show blank cells with dashes shows blank cells as a dash (-) in the Marginal report.
Use glossary transformations
Choose Use glossary transformations if you want to apply statements written in Setup|Glossary Variables to the marginal calculation.
Show report for columns
Enter the positions (offset) from the beginning of the file to restrict the marginal report. These positions should be delimited with commas and/or dashes.
Example: To run only positions 30-50 of record 1 and 1-50 of record 2 when there are 2 records per case and each record is 80 positions, enter:
30-50,81-130
| Note: For ASCII data files, the longest record in the file should be used as the record length. |
Records per case
Enter the number of records per case from your data file in the Records per case field.
Cases to run
To limit the number of records processed enter the number of cases in the Cases to run field. Cases to run automatically defaults to the total number of records in the data file.
Lines per page
Enter the number of lines you want to print per page for your report in the Lines per page field.
You can bypass syntax checking by selecting Alt+Z on the Marginal dialog box.
Related topics: