XLSTAT: Surveys with Multiple Answer Questions

 

Dataset for Example

The (attached) data are the results of a survey in which 15 consumers were asked to evaluate a variety of strawberries using 7 attributes. Consumers were asked to check off the attributes that best described the strawberry variety.

The raw output of the survey contains replies which are entered one after the other and separated by a comma in the Excel cells (see table below).

With this formatting, data analysis and statistical techniques requiring a structured layout cannot be applied.

The objective here is to dissociate each attribute and to define for each consumer whether it has been checked or not.

The new data format will allow us to perform statistical analyses, such as CLUSCATA analysis.

 

Setting Up

• Open XLSTAT.

• Click on the Preparing data menu and select the Multiple Answer Questions feature.

In the General tab:

• Select column B containing all the attributes in the Data field.

• Choose the separator corresponding to the comma in the Separator field.

• Check the Column Labels field since the dataset contains column headers.

• Click on the OK button to launch the computations.

• The results are displayed on a new Excel sheet.

 

Interpreting the Results

The output table shows the presence or absence of each attribute for each consumer.

The columns corresponding to the multiple-answer questions have been replaced by as many columns as there are answers in the input columns.
In each column, we find Yes/No answers depending on whether the respondents have checked or not the item.
Using this new table format, you can classify subjects using CLUSCATA.