In this article
If you select Collapsed, the variable is treated as one field instead of it being broken down to its individual categories. This setting will differ based on what type of question the variable is.
When you enable Collapsed for numeric questions, ordered multi questions, single questions with weights defined in the answer list and grid questions with weights defined in the scale, the “default stats” drop-down opens. The statistics you can choose between are the same as those listed here. Instead of showing the distribution based on the answer list, the table shows an average value.
Items that represent only one variable will then just give one item in the answer list, whereas items that represent several variables, that is grids and multis, will give one item for each answer in the answer list.
For example, when you report on a grid question that has a 5-point scale, un-collapsed can give a table such as that shown in the figure below.
Figure 1 - Example of an un-collapsed grid
Reporting on the same grid but selecting Collapsed and Average as default statistics, will give a table such ashere:
Figure 2 - Example of a collapsed grid
Multi questions are by default reported collapsed . All other types are reported un-collapsed.
Figure 3 - Example of a collapsed multi
Note: As the respondents may select more than one item in the multi questions, the sum of the percentages will be more than 100%. However, the total number of respondents in each group, (for example 86 males), is 100% of the base in that group.
If you deselect Collapsed on the multi question, the table will show “Yes” for selected and “No” for not selected for each of the items in the multi question:
Figure 4 - Extract from the same multi table, "un-collapsed"
There are three types of questions that display a similar behavior:
- A Ranking question will, by default, be displayed collapsed, showing the average for each of the items. If you deselect the Collapsed property, a table similar to that shown hereabove will be produced, showing the distribution for the various categories. That is, for each item, the number of respondents who ranked it as number 1, the number who ranked it as number 2 etc. will be listed.
- A Numeric List question will by default be collapsed, showing an average for each item. If minimum and maximum values are defined in the question’s properties, and the number of items between the minimum and maximum does not exceed 101, you can display the distribution for each number by deselecting Collapsed.
- The same also applies to a Numeric question with the maximum and minimum limits set.
The Collapsed property is also used with the statistics and categories objects.