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Managing Variables
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Click here with the right mouse
button to get the short cut menu
Fig. 30: Table of Variables
When right-clicking a header in the table a short cut menu appears. To
create a new variable choose ADD VARIABLE. Then enter a name for the new
variable in the text box and choose the appropriate variable type.
Four types of variables are available in MAXqda:
q String (text)
q Number (integer)
q Floating point number
q Date/time.
For instance if you want to define a variable named „gender“ with the values „m“ (for male) and „f“ (for female) the variable type String would be
appropriate.
In this way you can create as many variables as you like. All variables are
held in the VARIABLES table, which has as many rows as texts have been
imported into the DOCUMENT SYSTEM. The columns of the table are built by
the variables. Thus the number of cells of the data matrix is (number of
texts) * (number of variables). The matrix can easily be exported to SPSS
or Excel for statistical computations.
Example: To enter a value for the variable „gender“ in the first row of the
table, double-click on the cell of the Variables table and enter „m“ for a
male or „w“ in the case of a female respondent.