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Custom Variable Uploads give you the ability to append additional data to your survey, customize your data set create new filter options.

 

Creating a custom variable

  1. With the Original - as fielded report open on the Results page, click the Export options menu, and download the Excel with coded map.
  2. After the Respondent ID column, create a custom variable column with the prefix aytm: (ex: aytm:custom_state, aytm:group).
    Note: Each variable needs a unique label, and variable names are limited to 25 characters and may not contain spaces. Acceptable characters are letters, numbers, and the underscore symbol (ex. aytm:abcd_123). 
  3. Populate the columns with the appropriate variable data. (Spaces and special characters are acceptable within the data cells.)
  4. Save your edited excel file as a CSV or XLSX file.
  5. On the results page, click the Filters menu, scroll to the bottom, and click Upload CSV/XLSX. Learn more about how to use a variable for Data Weighting.

You can upload multiple files, and new variables will be created if the column contains a unique label. If you added new variable data to a label already existing in the stats page, the latest data would overwrite the existing.
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Please note currently you can only append data to the existing data set, you cannot add new respondents to an existing stats report with this feature. If you need to merge surveys please reach out to support for assistance.

 

 

Summary of Limits

Max Variables per survey: 100

Max Variable name length: 25 characters

Max characters for a variable: 5,000

 

 

Troubleshooting

Having trouble with your file? Check for any of these common troubleshooting tips. The system will provide a warning message if the file cannot be processed or if it has to adjust the file to upload.

  1. Is your file saved as a CSV?
  2. Variable names are too long: The platform will automatically trim to 25 characters.
  3. Variable names are repeated: Columns Q, R, and S contain the same variable titled "custom_var16". The platform only imported data from column Q and had to ignore R and S.
  4. Column AB and AC contained the same variable titled "custom_var25_name_is_too". We've only imported data from column AB and had to ignore AC.
  5. Too many variables: Max number of unique variables per survey is 100.
  6. Variable has too many characters: variables can contain up to 5,000 characters anything after that will be cut off.
  7. Variable name conflicts with our naming convention: you named a column MSA, but it's already being used by our system. To upload we will automatically add custom_ to the variable name.
  8. The file type is not compatible: the system will accept CSV or Excel but the file can not contain a double header. Both our raw Excel and CSV contain double headers. Use the Excel with coded maps or create a new sheet in Excel and save as a CSV.

Questions? Reach out to support@aytm.com for assistance!