des.and dev. for survey database

[JM]

I have a double blind survey that I am trying to develope
a functional and user friendly database for.

Most answers are Yes/No
Some answers are Mutliple choice single ans.
A couple are multiple choice mult. ans.

This database will be stored in a shared file on a LAN,
but for now I have it saved to my C drive.

I'm thinking about storing the data in fields that
represent each answer (as opposed to each question) as a
series of 1, 0 and X (1=yes, 0=No, and X=don't know)

If the outcome is going to be a tally of the responses
given, what is the best design format? The queries run on
this table will be used to develop charts.

How do I code the multiple choice answers such that the
form uses the names of the answers, but the data stored in
the table is in 1 or 0 format? Do I need to do this?

 

[Dennis Schmidt]

Hi JM,

My name is Dennis Schmidt. Thank you for using the Microsoft Newsgroups.

I definitely think that storing all the answers in one record is the
correct approach. You might consider using Option Groups for the answers.
In this way, you can assign values for the answers selected and would make
totaling a little easier. Multiple choice questions that require more than
one answer are a little more difficult. Perhaps using check boxes (not as
part of an option group) would work in this situation.

I hope this helps! If you have additional questions on this topic, please
reply to this posting.

Need quick answers to questions like these? The Microsoft Knowledge Base
provides a wealth of information that you can use to troubleshoot a problem
or answer a question! It's located at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/c.asp?M=F>.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use. © 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.

Regards,
Dennis Schmidt
Microsoft Support

 

[John Vinson]

I have a double blind survey that I am trying to develope
a functional and user friendly database for.

Most answers are Yes/No
Some answers are Mutliple choice single ans.
A couple are multiple choice mult. ans.

Check out Duane Hookum's excellent _At Your Survey_ sample database:

http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/Otherdownload.asp?SampleName='At Your Survey 2000'

I have to fairly emphatically disagree with Dennis; the wide/flat
model falls down if you have more than 250 questions (not uncommon),
more than 2000 bytes total of possible answers (very common if there
are any free-text answers), and especially if you want any flexibility
in adding and removing questions from the list. The normalized
structure in At Your Survey is a bit more work initially but provides
much more flexibility.

 

[JM]

Thank you. This at least gets me started.

My main concern is the multiple choice questions.

If I use toggle buttons, or radio buttons, that will
provide the yes/no answer, however I need to tally
information. Will access do this as a part of a tools
package, or does it need to be entered as 1/0?

Therein, as well, lies my other question. Multiple choice
answers- will they be better as 1/0 or is there a way to
count "specific answer here" using access?