2.2.2 Worked Examples

Example 2.4. An example of poor data entry
The following spreadsheet shows an incorrect attempt to enter the data from the Data Collection Form for Seating Patterns and the Remodeling Questionnaire form that were developed previously (example 2). In order to save space, only a few observations are shown (A2-J4). The description of the categories for each of the variables is found in cells C7-I10; normally these would appear as comments in spreadsheet in the column headings.

There are several major errors in the way the data has been entered into the spreadsheet in figure 2.1.

1. An observation in this spreadsheet incorrectly consists of two types of observations run together, one from the Data Collection Form for Seating Patterns and the other from the Remodeling Questionnaire. An observation from the seating pattern form consists of counting people in the three areas at a particular time of day. An observation from the questionnaire consists of one person’s opinions.
2. The observations have no meaningful identifiers. Notice that multiple records have the same date or same time, so those are not acceptable identifiers.
3. The variable names ”TABLE SPACE” and ”CHAIR COMFORT” each contain a space, which might cause data analysis problems, depending on the software used.
4. Cells G3, H2-H4, I3 all contain two or more entries.
5. The column under ”COMMENTS” does not contain coded data.

NOTE: The next two examples and spreadsheets show a better way of entering the data from the above data collection forms. (All of these are in data file C02 Over Easy.xls [.rda].) Two spreadsheets (or at lesat two workbooks in a single spreadsheet) are necessary because the observations cannot be combined into one spreadsheet, as we saw in example 4. Explanations for the coding of the data from each form are provided (these are not the only ”correct” answers; there are different options for each). Four sample observations are shown in each spreadsheet.

Example 2.5. Coding the Data from the Collection Form for Seating Patterns

Our data collection form contains the following variables. Each variable is described, along with its unit and categories. The data type for each variable is described in parentheses after the description.

Notice that the name variable ”HOLE” has been selected in the spreadsheet (figure 2.2) and a pop-up comment has been displayed describing how this variable has been coded. You can also see the other comment triangles in the upper right part of the other cells in the row. These contain the descriptions of how each variable has been coded.

Example 2.6. Coding the Data from the Remodeling Questionnaire
In the spreadsheet in figure 2.3, the codes for the data are written at the bottom of the data on the spreadsheet itself for convenience. Most often, descriptions of codes are either inserted as comments in the variable name cells (as we saw above) or written separately from the spreadsheet in the report of the analysis.