A ‘Categories’ submenu in the control editor determines the way that variable’s options are included in a control.
Note that you should pre-select which categories should be included in a control before you select a variable. Otherwise, when changing the mode, the selected options will be reset.
'Categories’ Selection
The ‘Categories’ selection submenu has five options: Manual, All, First, Last and Top. Let's dive into each option to see how and when they can be used.
Categories: Manual
'Manual' is the default mode of adding variable options to a control, ensuring full control over the selection process. You can drag&drop the whole variable to add all the options or pick only the required ones. These options can be individually re-ordered, renamed or removed. This mode also allows to create logical expressions and rebase for each option.
Categories: All
'All' mode means that all available options will be displayed on the control. When this mode is selected, the control will automatically include new categories from the updated database.
In the ‘All’ mode the variable is displayed as a whole.
The ‘All’ mode is particularly useful for studies that demand regular updates for quarterly reporting
Categories: First or Last
The ‘First’ and ‘Last’ selection strategies allow you to specify any numerical value to determine how many options are displayed in the control. ‘First’ will show the earliest listed categories according to the specified number, while the ‘Last’ strategy will display the latest categories.
Categories: Top
The ‘Top’ mode allows you to specify a numerical value to determine how many of the highest-weighted categories will be displayed in the control.
Since the 'Top' mode relies on a measure of significance, it is best used for variables that can be reasonably ranked by significance. For example, for age and income indicators.
For the wave variable, it is neccesery to use the 'First'/'Last' strategy, since the significance of waves lies in chronological order rather than weighted counts.