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All About DIY Data Loading ("Self-loading")
All About DIY Data Loading ("Self-loading")

This article explains how managers can upload .sav survey data for analysis

Ian Brown avatar
Written by Ian Brown
Updated over a week ago

Loading survey data into KnowledgeHound for analysis can be done in 3 ways:

  1. Data Loading for Managers ("self-loading"), which allows managers to upload .sav files for KnowledgeHound to automatically prepare and present in minutes

  2. Sending data to KnowledgeHound's Data Processing Team for professional data cleaning

  3. Via an integration with your data supplier

This article will explain what to expect from the first option, "self-loading". For a quick resource to help answer common questions, check out our FAQ for self-loading.

What is self-loading?

KnowledgeHound allows those with manager credentials to load their own data files instantly, without relying on support or external teams. This means managers can simply drop a data file onto a study and work with the results in minutes.

To do this, managers should follow these steps:

[Skip to step 3 if you've already created a study to host the data file.]

  1. Create a new study by clicking "add study" on the right side of your toolbar at the top of the page

  2. Fill in the informational fields and click "Create Study"

  3. On your study, import the data file from the questions tab or files tab. The data file must have the file format .SAV or .SAV.zip for the system to recognize it. See below for more information on data file limitations.

  4. Make sure the "Use Professional Data Services?" box is unchecked.

  5. Review and accept the terms, then select "Upload files"

From there, you will see what stage of the cleaning process your data file is in and publish it broadly when you're ready.

Note- Before a study is published, the data will only be available to managers.

What kind of data file works best?

See our Complete Data Quality Guide for information on formatting a data file in a way that will work best with KnowledgeHound.

In order for our system to identify survey data, it looks for particular file types. The acceptable file formats are as follows:

  • .SAV

  • .SAV.zip

Other specifications your file must meet in order to be loaded properly:

  • Does not exceed 1gb in size

  • Does not exceed 20,000 questions

  • Does not exceed 500,000 respondents

What happens to my data after I load it?

KnowledgeHound automatically cleans your data file in the following ways:

  1. Whitespace normalization

  2. Grid (matrix) detection and creation

From there, KnowledgeHound sorts through the variables and responses and then labels them based on what was found in the .SAV file. Our "Smart Defaults" system then decides if questions should be "suggested" (questions best used to segment the data such as demographic or wave), or "searchable" (questions that can be found via the platform-wide search capability; generally from the core questionnaire). Certain variables, such as weights, will also be detected here and made available accordingly.

What changes can I make?

When your data is ready, you have the ability to make the following changes:

  • Edit question labels

  • Make question IDs visible

  • Create new grid (matrix) questions

  • Edit the contributing options on existing grid questions

  • Set default filters

Reloading a data file

You may need to reload a data file because a new wave has been run, or changes have been made to the original .SAV file. Note that replacing your file requires a file of the same name.

To reload your data file, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Questions tab of your study

  2. On the left side of the page, click on the gear icon next to "Data Settings"

  3. In the dropdown, select "Upload a new version"

  4. Add your replacement file (which must have an identical file name) and select "Upload files"

You will then begin to see the status of your new data file on the left side of the page. It will replace the existing questions when the file is finished uploading.

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