Charting with external data – technical details

Standard variables in a Report are linked directly relate to a variable or column name in the data extract. If there is a variable for age, then it will look up data in the data extract for the column named _age.

 

For multiples and grids the principle is the same with a name linked to the data extract columns, although there may several ‘bits’ of data columns involved. So a list for a multiple question called items will look for and reference a set of columns _items__1, _ items__2 etc

 

Understanding how report definitions link to the columns in the data extract means that you can use variable definitions to chart and analyse data that did not come from the questionnaire.

 

For instance, if you uploaded contact data which additional data for job seniority labelled as _seniority in the data extract, you can generate a new report variable called seniority (no initial _) with codes defined by the values in the data extract.

 

Note that because Cxoice uses standard SQL to run counts and filters across the data extract table, question names always starts with _ in reporting mode.