Introduction
CrossTab and Data Dictionary allow persons with little or no computer experience to quickly
tabulate data files. CrossTab lets you create up to 4-way cross-tabulations of any combination
of data items. The Data Dictionary describes the records, items, and values in the data file and
allows you to change the category classifications of any of the data items. These programs are a
subset of the Integrated Microcomputer Processing System (IMPS), which performs the major
tasks in census and survey data processing.
Hardware and Software Requirements
| Minimum configuration: |
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| Recommended configuration: |
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Installation under Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups
From the Program Manager menu, choose File and then Run.
Enter d:\crosstab\win32s\disk1\setup (where d: is the CD-ROM drive)
Click OK.
If you are told Win32s is already installed, click Exit, otherwise follow the directions for
installing Win32s.
Now from the Program Manager menu, choose File and then Run.
Enter d:\crosstab\disk1\setup (where d: is the CD-ROM drive)
Click OK.
Setup takes you through a series of dialog boxes that prompt you for setup information.
Installation under Windows 95
Click the Start button.
Click Run.
Enter d:\crosstab\disk1\setup (where d: is the CD-ROM drive)
Click OK.
Setup takes you through a series of dialog boxes that prompt you for setup information.
We recommend that you accept the default options during the installation procedure. After
executing the installation you see this set of icons:
Getting Started
Double click on the Cross Tabulation icon. The following screen should appear:
This screen is used to define the tabulations that you want to produce.
Click on the Item button under Row Items. The following dialog box appears:
Type the name of the item or scroll through the list of items and select one you wish to tabulate.
The dialog box contains an alphabetical listing of all the data items in the CPS file. You can
change the listing to hierarchical, in which case the items are listed by record type and position
within the record.
Suppose you want to cross-tabulate Tenure by Kind of Family and Sex. (Tenure is on the
housing record, Kind of family is on the family record and Sex is on the person record). Type
Tenure and click OK. Now press the top Item button for Column Items. Type Kind of
Family and press of OK. Now press the bottom Item button for Column Items. Type Sex and
click OK. You have specified a table with Tenure in the rows and Kind of Family and Sex in
the columns.
The CPS data is weighted. Since you are tabulating persons, you need to use Weight P:March supplement final weight. Press the Item button for Weight. Type Weight P:March supplement final weight and click OK. The specifications you made should look like the following:
To tabulate the data, press the Run (traffic light) button on the tool bar. CrossTab will ask you
to select the data file to tabulate; choose the CPS data file (cpsmar96.adf) from the CD-ROM.
Click on the file name and then click Open to begin the tabulation. A progress indicator will
appear during the tabulation. When the tabulation is completed, the Table Viewer will display
the table as follows:
The IMPS Table Viewer allows you to select some or all of the cells of the table and copy them
into a spreadsheet or word processor. Suppose you want copy Total and Female head families
parts of the table to your word processor. Use the mouse to select all the cells of the first three
columns of the table. Now hold the Ctrl key down and select all the cells of the last three
columns of the table. Press the Copy button on the tool bar, or choose Edit/Copy from the menu
to copy the selected cells, stubs, and column headings to the Windows clipboard. From your
word processor document, paste the contents of the clipboard where you wish them to appear.
The following table should appear in your word processor document.
You can also paste the table into a spreadsheet.
Negative Values in Cross Tab
CrossTab requires that a signed data item reserve the leftmost character to indicate the sign of the
value. If the leftmost character contains a minus sign (-), the value is negative. If the leftmost
character contains a plus sign (+), blank or zero, the value is positive. Negative values in the
CPS data file always contain a minus sign (-) as the leftmost character. However, positive values
sometimes contain 1 to 9 in the leftmost character.
For signed data items that never have positive values with 1 to 9 as the leftmost character, there
is no problem. You tabulate them in the same manner as unsigned data items. However for
signed data items that have positive values 1 to 9 as the leftmost character, you must tabulate the
positive and negative values separately. Also you must tabulate the positive values before you
tabulate the negative values.
Suppose you need to tabulate Earnings before deductions by Sex for California. To create a new
table, press that Add button below the tool bar. This will produce an empty screen for Table 2.
For the row item, type Earning before deductions. Notice that there are two items available,
Earnings before deductions value-positive and Earnings before deductions value-negative. These are
two definitions of the same data item, one to produce tables for positive values and one to
produce tables for negative value. Choose Earnings before deductions value-positive and press OK.
For the column item, enter Sex and for the weight, enter Weight P:March supplement final
weight. Now, click the Universe button to restrict the tabulation to persons in California. Type
1960 Census State code for the item, select '=' as a relation, and select 'California' near the
bottom of the list of states. Press the OK button to close the dialog box.
This completes the specification for the table for positive values of Earning before deductions.
You will need to create another table for the negative values. Press the Add button under the
tool bar create Table 3. This time, choose Earnings before deductions value-negative as the row
item. Make Sex as the column item, and Weight P:March supplement final weight as the
weight item and 1960 Census State code = California as the universe.
Click the Run button (traffic light). When complete you will have created the following two additional tables.
Be careful when tabulating items that are defined as -positive and -negative. Remember that you must tabulate the positive data values before the negative data values. Also remember that the totals are only for the positive or negative values.
Data Dictionary
The Data Dictionary defines the contents and locations of data items in the data file. You can use
the Data Dictionary program to modify categories in the CPS data file or to create new Data
Dictionaries to describe other data files you might want to tabulate.
Suppose you want to define a new set of categories for the Educational attainment item. From the CrossTab program, press the Data Dictionary (blue book) button on the tool bar. The Data Dictionary program will open and load the Data Dictionary. Press the Find (magnifying glass) button, on the Data Dictionary tool bar. Type Educational attainment in the Find Text dialog box and press Enter or the Next button. You should see the following:
Click the Close button to close the Find Text dialog box.
This window displays the definition of the contents of the person record (P-RECORD). The top
half the window displays the definition of the items in the record. The bottom half displays the
values defined for the item selected in the top half, namely Educational attainment.
Note that the values associated with the Educational attainment item are for individual grade level, such as 9th grade. Suppose you wanted to see education level categories such as Elementary, Middle School, High School, etc.
To define a new category, click anywhere on the bottom half of the window where the values are defined. A line of the values should be highlighted. Now click the Add button just under the tool bar at the top of the screen. A dialog box will appear with two choices. Press the button marked Add a new value set. Enter the new classification shown below. Press the ESC key when the entry is completed.
To return to the CrossTab program, press the CrossTab (red calculator) button on the tool bar.
Click Yes to save the changes to the Data Dictionary. Now when you select items, an Education
level item with the new categories is available for tabulation. Because the value 0 (children) was
not defined under Education level, persons with value 0 for this item will not appear in the
tabulation.
Note: If you do not use a Value Label (leave space blank) then CrossTab will use the values given as text for the label. For an example look at the data item Earnings before deductions value-positive. Notice that there are no label names given in the Data Dictionary and then look at the table output shown above.
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To find out more about the use of the Data Dictionary, or other parts of the software, press the
Help (?) button on the tool bar.
Text Viewer
The Text Viewer allows you to display the contents of any ASCII text file or data file. You can
view a file with records or lines up to 32000 wide and of indefinite length. For example, you can
view the contents of CPS data file (cpsmar96.adf). You can also use the Text Viewer to inspect
the listing of the Data Dictionary (mar96cps.lst). The Copy button on the tool bar is available to
copy selected sections into a word processor or spreadsheet. However, you cannot alter the file
being viewed. This is a text viewer, not a text editor.
Table Viewer
The Table Viewer allows you to display tabulations produced by the CrossTab. It is called
automatically when a tabulation is completed to allow you to view the tabulations you have just
produced. You can press the Save button on the tool bar to save to a permanent file (which will
have the extension .tbw). You can later examine or print the tables saved in .tbw files with the
Table Viewer.
Files
The CrossTab System uses file extensions to identify files:
| .DDW |
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| .XTS |
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| .TBW |
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| .LST |
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Support
If you have any problems with understanding or using the data, the data file, or the data dictionary, please contact:
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If you have any problems with the CrossTab software itself, please contact:
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