Expunging records and marking as tests (r9)

The Expunge Records and Mark As Test applets are found in the Data Management applet group. These applets offer field management tools to reclassify survey records so that they are not included among live data.

Expunge Records

Use the Expunge Records applet to change a respondent record's status from 'C' (Completed) to 'X' (Expunged). The Expunged status is used for completed survey records that don't meet quality standards or otherwise need to be excluded from the set of Completes. Expunged records will continue to exist in the dataset, but they will not count towards quotas. They will also be excluded from reports and exports that are filtered on Completed records. Only records with Completed status can be expunged.

Use the IDs, Date/Time, and Data Cut filters to select the records to expunge. After applying the desired filters, the Existing Respondent Data will be populated with the respondent records chosen. Click Next to continue.

On the next screen, review the information in the Original Respondent Data and Update Field boxes and confirm that the desired records and new status were selected. If any adjustments need to be made, click the Back button to return to the previous screen. Otherwise, select the confirmation checkbox and click the Expunge Records button to apply the update. 

Mark As Test

The Mark As Test applet allows you to classify respondent records as test records. Marking a record as a test sets the value of the record's testmode variable to '3 - Manual test record'. Records that have been marked as tests are hidden from reports and do not count towards quotas while the survey is in Field or Analyze stage.

After the desired filter has been applied, the Existing Respondent Data section will be populated with the trans_id of the selected records and the testmode values of those records. Click Next to continue.

On the next screen, review the information in the Original Respondent Data and Update Field boxes and confirm that the desired records and new status were selected. If any adjustments need to be made, click the Back button to return to the previous screen. Otherwise, select the confirmation checkbox and click the Update Data button to apply the update. 

Once a record has been expunged or marked as a test, it can only be reinstated by users with the Maker survey role. For additional assistance, reach out a Support agent.