1. Census 2010 Boot Camp For Journalists
PDQ-Explore
Census 2010 Boot Camp
For
Journalists
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

2. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Objectives
To learn to:
Open the PDQ-Explore Graphical Interface
Set up and Execute a PDQ-Explore Query
Tabulations
Summary Statistics
Quantiles
Manipulate Results
Totals
Percentages
Pivoting
Sorting
Save and Export Results
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

3. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Requirements
PC (Not Mac) with Windows NT or later
128 MB RAM or more
100 MB free hard disk space
Write access to installation drive
USB Port (if using flash drive)
Connection to Internet
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

4. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Installation Note
PDQ-Explore is designed to run as a client on a PC that has Internet access to our PDQ server in Ann Arbor: pdq.psc.isr.umich.edu
By default the installation files should be copied to:
C:\Program Files\PDQ
If write access to C: is not available:
PDQ-Explore can be run from the flash drive
Changes to the explore.ini file may be necessary
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

5. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Starting PDQ-Explore
If the PDQ-Explore icon is on the desktop:
Double-Click on the PDQ-Explore icon
If there is no icon on the desktop:
Go to the PDQ-Explore desktop or USB installation folder
Double-Click on explore.exe
Or alternatively if using the USB Flash Drive:
Start, Run, x:\pdq\explore.exe
Note: The USB drive letter (x:) is machine dependent
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

6. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Getting Started
Confirm server: pdq.psc.isr.umich.edu
No subscriber name/password is required
Enter/Enter/Enter until “Open” window appears
Double-Click on “journal” workspace
Select and expand “ipacs08” data set
Expand “housing” or “person” variable list
Browse through variable list
Open IPUMS documentation:
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

7. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Set Up Query
Select a data set (ipacs08)
Right click (or click on the “Query” tab)
Click on “Setup New Expert Query”
Setup window opens
Fill in the blanks (see the following slides and related handouts)
Click on the “Results” tab
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

8. Filling in the Blanks – Example 1
Query Name: Example 1: Employment Status
Query Type: Tabulation
Universe/Selection: year=2007
Row: statefip
Column: empstat
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

9. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

10. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Execute Example 1
Click on “Results”
To get totals by row and column:
Click on “Options” “Totals” “Both”
To get percentages by row:
Click on “Options” “Percent Options” “Percent by Row”
To sort in descending order on “Unemployed:”
Click on “Unemployed” column heading
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

12. Filling in the Blanks – Example 1A
Query Name: Example 1A
Query Type: Tabulation
Universe/Selection: year=2007
Row: statefip
Column: empstat:1..2
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

14. Filling in the Blanks – Example 2
Query Name: Example 2: Sex by State
Query Type: Tabulation
Universe/Selection: year=2007
Row: statefip
Column: sex
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

15. Filling in the Blanks – Example 3
Query Name: Example 3: Poverty
Query Type: Summary Stats
Universe/Selection: year=2007
Row: metaread
Describe Expression: poverty
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

16. Filling in the Blanks – Example 4
Query Name: Example 4: Poverty by State
Query Type: Summary Stats
Universe/Sel: year=2007 & poverty>0
Row: statefip
Describe Exp.: poverty
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

17. Filling in the Blanks – Example 5
Query Name: Example 5: Cohabitation
Query Type: Tabulation
Universe/Sel: year=2007 & relate=1
Row: sex
Describe Exp.: pick(related=1114,sex)
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

18. Filling in the Blanks – Example 6
Query Name: Example 6: Seniors
Query Type: Tabulation
Universe/Sel: (year<=2000 | year=2007) & relate=1
Row: year
Describe Exp.: sum(age<65)=0
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

19. Filling in the Blanks – Example 7
Query Name: Example 7: Income by Sex
Query Type: Quantile
Universe/Sel: year=2007 &
incwage>0 & incwage<999999
Row: sex
Quantile: (incwage+50)/100
Weight: <default>
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

20. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

21. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
Data Gotchas
You need to know your data:
Relevance to concerns
Variable names
Codes
Limits, top codes
Missing and N/A Codes
Sense of reasonable and unreasonable results
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009

22. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009
PDQ-Explore Gotchas
You need to know what you can ignore
Focus on tabulations and summary stats
Large tables can be hard to interpret
You need to understand the options:
Percentages
Totals
Sorting
Saving/Exporting/Printing Setups and Results
Ann Arbor, Michigan October 28-30, 2009