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Selecting the exclusive option converts other subitems to NA's
- Retinger124
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selecting an exclusive option in a multiple choice question causes other items in the question to be recorded as missing. For example:
Q1. Do you own:
a. a cat
b. a dog
c. none of the above [exclusive option]
If the respondent picks c. (the exclusive option) he will be recorder in the dataset like this:
Q1a | Q1b | Q1c
NA | NA | Yes
Is it possible to avoid this behaviour from LimeSurvey and automatically covert NA's into No's? The respondent gave a valid answer with clear interpretation: he doesn't own neither a cat nor a dog. His answers shouldn't be treated as missing data.
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- holch
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So it is not a yes/no question. If you want that, you need to create a Matrix with "Yes" / "No" options.
Because the respondent has NOT specifically given an answer to the subquestion, we don't even know if the person has read it. Might not be relevant in your case, but can be relevant in other cases. So I think the "NA" behaviour is actually the "correct" one.
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- Retinger124
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I will remember about your suggestion to use a yes/no matrix but I think that it carries a serious risk of annoying the respondent. In my example, there are only two subquestions, but imagine having to answer 10 or 15 of these (I don't own a hamster, a fish, an elephant...). For now I will stick with multiple choice questions and cleaning the answers later.
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- Joffm
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In my opinion the "exclusive option" works the same way as the array filter.
Now these filtered options are not available for selection (either not visible or grayed).
Seems the export doesn't distinguish between these two cases.
2. A "search/replace" is done quickly.
You can file a bug report
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- Retinger124
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- Retinger124
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I don't really get the "search/replace" comment. In real life scenarios cleaning this stuff up can be pretty annoying. Different NA's may be present in the data for different reasons. You have to programmatically distinguish which are there for good reasons (filters, non-response etc.) and which are not.
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- holch
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I will remember about your suggestion to use a yes/no matrix but I think that it carries a serious risk of annoying the respondent.
I certainly agree with that. However, in my opinion it is a different level if something hasn't been checked or if someone actively marked it as "No". Might be only a small difference, but it is a difference nevertheless.
The really confusing part is that when you export the data (as excel / csv / R file) these subitems ARE treated as yes-or-no questions.
Here I actually agree. This is confusing. Probably this is treated like if a subquestion hasn't been shown e.g. via relevance equation. However, here it is different. They subquestion has been shown but then was rendered unselectable by choosing the exclusive option. So it should not be treated differently to the normal behaviour of the question type.
So this seems to inconsistent to me and I think it is worth a bug report as Joffm says.
Now, if the person who is analysing the data is not the same person who created the survey and is not familiar with LimeSurvey, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that the percentage of dog owners is equal to the number of yes's divided by the sum of yes's and no's and forget to correct for the number of none-of-the-above's. This is bound to produce plenty of mistakes.
Here I don't really agree. The person who analyses the data has the responsibility to understand the question that was asked and how the data is structured, so I don' think this is really a valid "excuse".
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- DenisChenu
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But you need to create the config.xml file to test it in 5 and 6.
manual.limesurvey.org/LimeStore_extension_development
(or copy and adapt an exemple : gitlab.com/SondagesPro/QuestionSettingsT...g.xml?ref_type=heads )
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- Retinger124
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I create a plugin long time ago for this : gitlab.com/SondagesPro/altExcludeMultiple
I will check it out. Thank you!
The person who analyses the data has the responsibility to understand the question that was asked and how the data is structured, so I don' think this is really a valid "excuse".
I'm not saying that it's a valid excuse. Just stating the obvious that it increases the risk of mistakes when people are in a hurry, distracted, lazy etc.
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