Data management/Multiple response questions

It is important to highlight the proper way of handling data from multiple response questions; such data can often be mishandled. An error that sometimes happens is to code the answers to questions in a way that does not recognise the multiple levels in the data that result from the different responses allowed.

An example of multiple-level data in this case study is given by the responses required for cattle activities by different members of the homestead (Question 5 in CS11Quest2). Homestead can be thought of as being at the top of the hierarchy of responses, within each homestead one can think of there being different cattle activities, and within each cattle activity there can be different categories of members of the homestead responsible for that activity.

In a database that recognises this hierarchical data structure there would be a flat file for storing data about each homestead, such as contained in the HOUSEHOLD file CS11Data1. A second flat file could then be used to store the information on each cattle activity.