qualified value

Quotas can use a variety of different criteria to assign respondents to different buckets (groups). The various options for doing this are usually controlled by the selectby tag. Sometimes, rather than rely on a selectby to evaluate every option condition and/or counts, it may make more sense to explicitly state the option that should be selected. Such a time would be:

• When there are numerous items to iterate through (for example, 50 or more), and
• The respondent will only qualify for one option; that is, the quota will not need to select from multiple qualifying options by counts, weight, etc.

At such times, qualified value can be used to alleviate the processing. It can be thought of as a cvalue for quotas: rather than evaluate options, just set the value to the input of the qualified value tag.

Syntax

qualified value can be used with single-punch quotas. The input to qualified value can be a question label, a variable reference, a logical expression, or a more advanced construction such as a concatenate which results in the desired option ID. In all cases, the quota must also have an option set to choose from. 

QUOTA. Quota Variable
type: quotas
qualifiedvalue: Value to assign
optsfrom: LISTNAME

Examples

Variable reference

Imagine the variable reference being a simple substitution with the answer from the question or variable it is referencing. For example, Q1, which is a text response, can accept values 1 through 10, as defined by the range tag. If at Q1 the respondent answers '2', then qualified value would have the input of '2' as well. Note that the option set here is defined with the series tag, and '2' is a valid option.

1. How many pets do you have?
type: text
datatype: whole
range: 1-10

1_QTA. Tracking number of pets
type: quotas
qualified value: $Q1
series: 1..10

Question label

A question label is most commonly used as shorthand for listing all options selected at the question it references. However, the question label approach appears similar to the variable reference when used with the qualified value tag. Technically, qualified value can only be used on a single-select quota. Therefore, the question it is referring to should also be a single-select (type: radio) question. Ultimately, the only option selected at the referenced question will be the only option substituted as the input at qualified value.

2. question 
type: radio
optsfrom: system.1to5

2X. Quota
type: quotas
qualifiedvalue: Q2
optsfrom: system.1to5

Logical expression 

As with cvalue, a wide range of logical expressions can be used as the input. In the example below, the expression says: if the answer given at Q3 is greater than or equal to 70, assign option 70; otherwise, assign the value from Q3. This will assign all responses of 70 or higher at Q3 into a single "70+" option at the QAGE quota, while responses less than 70 will be assigned to a specific option for the age given.

3. Enter your age.
type: text
datatype: whole
range: 1-100

AGE. Track age
type: quotas
qualified value: $Q3 >= 70 ? 70 : $Q3
series: 1..69 
70. 70+

Concatenation

The purpose of concatenate here is to create a variable reference or string composed of different elements. It's like a "fill in the blank" exercise. Substitute each variable reference with the value needed, and the result will be a single input.

For example, imagine the respondent selected option 3 at both question Q1 and Q2. The crosslist will create the only valid option '3_3' because it is using question label shorthand (see example Q2 above). Then, the qualified value input at Q1X is going to substitute its variable reference '$Q1' with '3', join it with an underscore '_', and join it with the substitution for the variable reference '$Q2' (also '3'), resulting in the input '3_3'. Note, this input is the value also stored in 'CROSS_LIST' and is the only viable option.

1. question A
type: radio
optsfrom: system.1to5

2. Question B
type: radio
optsfrom: system.1to5

setlist: CROSS_LIST
crosslists: Q1, Q2

1X. Quota
type: quotas
optsfrom: CROSS_LIST
qualifiedvalue:  $Q1 . _ . $Q2