Summarize Descriptions

Summarize description data

With this form you can summarize the information of selected descriptions and store the summarized data in a new description or update an existing one. After connecting a database select Edit -> Summarize descriptions … from the menu.

Description selection

 In the first tab Description selection you search for the source descriptions that shall be summarized into a new or an existing target description (see image below).

You have to select at least the mandatory parameter Project and start a query with button . From the result list superfluous entries may be removed with the button. For a detailled description of the query control please refer to section Query.

Descriptor selection

In tab Descriptor selection select the descriptors that shall be summarized in table column OK (see image below). You can select rsp. deselect all descriptors with buttons and . Button inverts all selections. To select all categorical, quantitative, text or sequence descriptors the buttons , , and are avaiable. With button you may select a descriptor tree rsp. descriptor tree node to select all descriptors assigned to the selected element.

For quantitative descriptors a statistical measure must be specified where the values for summarization are available. When the descriptor table is filled, for each quantitative descriptor the available recommended measures are checked if one of the measures “Mean (= average)”, “Central or typical value (human estimate)”, “Central or typical value (legacy data stat. meth. unknown)”, “Mode” or “Sample size” is available (priority in this sequence), it is pre-selected in colum Measure. You may modify this adjustment for each single descriptor or use button to change the setting for all selected descriptors. 

Generator options

In section Summarize options you may specify to Ignore notes and to Ignore modfier values of the source descriptions. If you select Restrict exclusive descriptors, the most often selected categorical state of a “exclusive” descriptor will be set instead of accumulating all source values. Accumulate scopes will collect all scope values, Accumulate resources all resources of the source descriptions to the target. Write item count will enter notes containing information about the number of collected items in the summary data. If you additionally select Write detailled notes, the source description IDs will be listed in the notes. Finally, Write summary infomation inserts a summary about summarized descriptions into the target description details (see image below).

In section Target description you may select the Target project (usually the same as the source description’s). You may either create a New description and enter the description name or Update a description selected form a drop-down list.  

In section Status data you may control the summarization behaviour for every descriptor data status value:

• Ignore    
  If in a summarized description the corresponding data status is present for a descriptor value, it will be summarized but the descriptor data status will not be set in the target description.
• Summarize
  As for Ignore the descriptor values will be summarized. Additionally the descriptor data status will be set in the target description.
• Omit data
  If in a summarized description the corresponding data status is present for a descriptor value, it will not be summarized and the descriptor data status will not be set in the target description.

After checking the settings click in button Start generator . During processing the icon of the button changes to  and you may abort by clicking the button. In the Preview area a table with the generated rsp. updated target description (coloured background, may be change with button ) and the summarized source descriptions (grey background) is shown. If the target description has been modified, this is indicated ba a yellow background of the description title (see image above). Updated values are shown as blue text. By double-clicking on a field in the preview table you may view the contents in a separate browser window. To save the updated values and close the window click the OK button. To exit without saving click Abort. In this case you will be asked if you want to save modified data.

Since building the preview table may take some time, especially if a lot of descriptors have been selected, you may use the button Recalculate for restarting the summary process. In this case the descriptor columns will not be re-built, only the summary data will be calculated and actualized. This feature may be useful, if you change some settings an want to update the data. If you use the Recalculate button with an empty preview table, only the description titles will be displayed. Anyway you can view the summarized data using the button (see below).

You may store all changed entries by clicking the button or omit all changes and reload the data by clicking the button. To view the description details of the currently selected entry click the button and a separate browser window opens (see image below).