Next: VAR VERSION NES VERSION
Version 02 Codebook
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CODEBOOK VARIABLE DOCUMENTATION
1948-1998 CUMULATIVE DATA FILE
(1948.WT98)
NES 1948-1998 CUMULATIVE DATA FILE
VARIABLE DOCUMENTATION
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NOTE ON VARIABLE NAMING:
The variable name references used in NES Study codebooks do not include
the "V" prefix found in all variable names used within the released
SAS and SPSS data definition files (.sas and .sps files).
For example, "VAR CF0001" and "VAR VERSION" in Study codebooks refer to
variables VCF0001 and VVERSION in the study data definition files.
The following description of variable numbering describes the numbering
standard now in use for all NES datasets. SPECIAL NOTE FOR THE 1948-1998
CUMULATIVE DATA FILE CODEBOOK: this codebook documentation has been
updated to correspond to the new numbering system in the identifying
variable number of each variable entry ("VAR CF0001" etc.) but notes and
references, do not yet entirely comply.
'Numbered' variables in NES timeseries datasets and in Pilot datasets
(except the 1998 Pilot) comply with the following format:
2-digit year prefix + 4 digits + [opt] 1-char suffix.
Examples: 1978 Post variable V780002; 1983 Pilot variable V832101.
Note that for datasets including data from multiple studies, the 2-digit
year prefix corresponds to the appropriate study year to which the
variable is associated; for example, the 1983 Pilot dataset also includes
1982 timeseries variables, for which the 2-digit prefix is 82.
Non-time-series studies other than Pilots use 2-character mnemonic
prefixes, for example variable VPS0048 in the 1988-1990-1992 Pooled
Senate Study dataset.
SPECIAL NOTE ON COLUMN LOCATIONS:
Some numeric variables use coding schemes that allow for code values
having a varying number of digits. In such instances, the number
of columns corresponding to the variable in the data file [.dat file]
and in the column specifications will be the width of the maximum value
occurring in the actual data, rather than the maximum width allowable
by the coding scheme. For example, if codes 01-12 are allowed for a
numeric variable but all values in the data are less than 10, then the
width of the variable will be output as 1.
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Walter Mebane
Mon Nov 12 02:55:58 EST 2001