1. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg WinDEM - Merge Files

2. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg 2 Table of Content 1. When is it necessary? 2. How can it be done technically? 3. What has to be taken into account?

3. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge WinDEM Data Files Example: Imagine you have entered some students' questionnaire data of your country in two different files: FilenameNo. of casesPuncher ID ISGDEUM2.dbf8111 ISGNATM2.dbf7222 3

4. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge WinDEM Data Files WinDEM File (ISGDEUM2.dbf) Puncher ID 111 WinDEM File (ISGNATM2.dbf) Puncher ID 222 4

5. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge WinDEM Data Files Puncher ID 111 Puncher ID 222 WinDem File (ISGDEUM2.dbf) 5

6. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge WinDEM Data Files Merging data files is only neccessary if you entered the same type of data in more than one data file. NOTE: Merging data files should be done before final data cleaning. 6

7. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg How to open the Table View? Sidebar Merge WinDEM Data Files 7

8. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg ISGDEUM2.dbf (file to be merged) (main file) ISGNATM2.dbf Merge WinDEM Data Files 8 All students from school 1001 All students from school 2002 The codebooks corresponding to the files must have exactly the same structure. NOTE:

9. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge Data Files – Process To merge two data files in WinDEM, you need to open the CODEBOOK of the first (main) file:  ISGDEUM2.sdb 9

10. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge Data Files – Process Please select a codebook with a corresponding data file in the appropriate path. You will get a message that informs you about the already existing data file. Click „OK“ to proceed. 10

11. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge Data Files – Process 11 Select Import > WinDEM from the “Import/Export” menu Open the data file to be merged

12. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg The records from ISGDEUM2.dbf and ISGNATF2.dbf have been merged now. Merge Data Files – Result  The data file ISGDEUM2.dbf now consists of 15 records (8+7). The merged data file will automatically take the name of the open codebook (in our example ISGDEUM2.dbf). 12

13. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg Merge Data Files – Result Once you have merged the files, the combined data file (main file) will appear as follows: Records from imported file (ISGNATM2.dbf) 13 Records from main file (ISGDEUM2.dbf)

14. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg If you want to keep a copy of the original file (here: ISGDEUF2.dbf), save it (and its codebook) under a different name BEFORE you perform data merging! Although you may have checked the individual files BEFORE merging and no problems were found, it is recomended that you repeat the check on duplicated records (Unique ID check) for the merged file! Merge Data Files NOTE: 14

15. Data Management Seminar, 8-11th July 2008, Hamburg 15 Thank you!