In this article
Data is recorded with one character per category of the corresponding variable. A character ‘1’ is used to signify that a category has been selected, a character ‘0’ signifies that a category is not selected. The category value refers to the relative position of the 0/1 code in the data field: thus a category value of 9 will always refer to the code in the 9th location of the data field even if some lower category values have not been defined. An import program should ignore the locations of undefined category values.
The data field length is the highest category value in the associated <value> or <range> elements. This means that with for example nine category values, nine fields in the data will be used. Using this storage type, Multi variables with long category lists will require a large data field length. In these cases you are recommended to use Spread instead (go to Spread for more information). This can be selected as Multiple format when generating the template, or assigned to one particular variable or a group of variables in the Template Editor.
If the data field length is less than the <position> element then it is assumed to be left-justified within the locations defined by the position. Export programs should ensure that any extra columns contain blanks or zeros.
Note that in a CSV data file, any data field representing a bit-style multiple which begins with "0" (zero) should always be delimited with double-quote characters. For example, for Triple-S XML version 2.0:
| Data value | Maximum in <values> element | <position> element | Data record b=space, x=space or zero |
| 1 | 1 to 9 | start="21" finish="29" | 100000000 |
| 1 | 1, 2, 3 and 9 | start="21" finish="29" | 100xxxxx0 |
| 1,3 | 1 to 12 | start="21" finish="32" | 101000000000 |
| none | 1 to 99 | start="21" finish="120" | 000000000...0 |
| 2,8 | 1 to 9 | start="21" finish="30" | 010000010b or 0100000100 |
| 2 | 1, 2, 3 and 9 | start="21" finish="24" | illegal |
| missing | 1 to 9 | start="21" finish="29" | bbbbbbbbb |
| missing | 1, 2, 3 and 10 | start="21" finish="30" | bbbxxxxxxb |
| 1 | 1 to 9 | start="5" (csv format) | 100000000 or "100000000" |
| 2,8 | 1 to 9 | start="5" (csv format) | "010000010" |