Value Attributes is a set of metadata relating to individual variables.
Technical details
Fields
The Value Attributes are modified by either changing Variable Set Structure, or, by clicking on a Variable or Variable Set in the Data Sets tree and selecting one of the following buttons in the DATA VALUES section of the Object Inspector:
- Labels. This is used to change the name displayed for each category.
- Select Categories. This is used when defining which categories are combined in a Binary - Multi or Binary - Grid Variable Set.
- Values. This is used to change the values of a variable used when numeric summaries, such as means and standard deviations, are computed.
- Missing Values. Deals with how specific categories in the data are included or excluded from calculations.
- Delete observations. Removes, or restores, rows from the Data Set.
- Reset. This resets data to the form it had when it was initially imported or created.
Inconsistent Value Attributes
When the value attributes of multiple Variables do not agree with one another (e.g., in a Variable Set), they are inconsistent. Inconsistent Value Attributes are displayed with a red background in the Value Attributes Dialog, or as a checkbox which is neither checked nor unchecked. When the source labels of a value are inconsistent, hovering the mouse over the label field shows a message stating "Source labels vary across variables" instead of the source label.
Method
See Variable Sets in our Displayr Help Center for worked examples of how to set Value Attributes for a variable set.
Editing value attributes with another program
It is also possible to edit value attributes using a spreadsheet editor such as Microsoft Excel. This is particularly helpful if you have a lot of things to change.
- In the DATA VALUES section of the Object Inspector select Labels, Select Categories, Values or Missing Values.
- Press Export and copy the value attributes into a spreadsheet.
- After editing the value attributes, press Import and paste the value attributes table from a spreadsheet into the text box. Note that the value attributes should be in a tab-separated-values format (this will typically be done automatically by the spreadsheet editor).
- Press OK twice to apply the changes