Many agencies use easy-to-navigate Excel spreadsheets to enter data. The completed file is sent to an evaluator and imported into a statistical file format (e.g. SPSS) for analysis. Here are some common data entry errors and how to fix them:
- Entering words instead of numbers – Numerical data is best; text fields cannot be used in most statistical analyses. Convert text to numeric values. For example, data collection sites can be coded like this: park =1, store =2, agency=3, etc.
- Mishandling skipped questions. Do not type the word “blank” when someone failed to answer a question. If the survey has a blank, leave that cell blank, too.
- Entering more than one value in a cell – Each cell in your Excel file should contain only ONE number. It should not look like this: 1,2,6. If the question asked respondents to “check all that apply”, then every response option must be its own variable.
- Guessing what a respondent meant. When respondents are having trouble choosing just one response, they often circle more than one answer. Do not enter more than one value (see above) and do not randomly choose one of their answers. Because you can’t discern which option they truly wanted, this data is lost. Leave the cell blank.