GETTING THE DATA READY FOR ANALYSIS

After data are obtained through questionnaires, they need to be coded, keyed in, and
edited. That is, a categorization scheme has to be set up before the data can be typed in.

 GETTING DATA READY FOR ANALYSIS

 CODING & DATA ENTRY

 EDITING DATA

 DATA TRANSFORMATION

1. Coding and data entry

Data coding involves assigning a number to the participants’ responses so they can be entered
into a database.

However, if, for whatever reason, this cannot be done, then it is perhaps a good idea to use a
coding sheet first to transcribe the data from the questionnaire and then key in the data. This
method, in contrast to flipping through each questionnaire for each item, avoids confusion,
especially when there are many questions and a large number of questionnaires as well.

In connection with the number of participants who responded to be entered into the data
base.Consists of:

 The process of systematically compiling raw data (contained in the questionnaire) into a
data processing machine, for example, SPSS.
 Example: Gender variable

1: Male 2. Female

a) Coding data

 Coding data is used as the basis for making a coding book.

 Questionnaires in closed questions are easier to do coding, when compared to open
questions.
  If you use open-ended questions in a questionnaire you should take an inventory of the
respondents' answers.
  This is one of the most important steps in data preparation). It refers to grouping and
assigning values to responses from the survey. 

For example, if a researcher has interviewed 1,000 people and now wants to find the average
age of the respondents, the researcher will create age buckets and categorize the age of each of
the respondent as per these codes. (For example, respondents between 13-15 years old would
have their age coded as 0, 16-18 as 1, 18-20 as 2, etc.) Then during analysis, the researcher can
deal with simplified age brackets, rather than a massive range of individual ages.
Codes and Coding
 Coding helps efficiency because
 Data that are coded require less time to enter
 Coding helps to reduce the number of items
entered
 Coding can help in sorting of data during the
data transformation process
 Coded data can save valuable memory/storage
space

b) Data Entry

After the responses from the participants, the results are entered into the data base. Raw data
(raw data)
can be entered via any software program, eg SPSS.
Data entry is a person-based process, is one of the important basic tasks needed when no
machine-readable version of the information for planned computer-based analysis or processing
is readily available. Sometimes what is needed is information about the information that can be
greater than the value of the information itself. It can also involve filling in required information
which is then data-entered from what was written on the research document, such as the growth
in available items in a category.
Procedures of data entry include are often done with a keyboard and at times also using a mouse,
although a manually-fed scanner may be involved. Historically, devices lacking any pre-
processing capabilities were used.