Knowledge Base

How Event Data Are Exported

Each event is exported with its original time stamp. All start and stops are exported, also for mutually exclusive behavior groups. For each behavior, the event type is indicated in a separate column.

Coding scheme elements (Subject, Behavior, Modifier) that were not scored for any of the exported observations are not included in the text file.

Modifiers of the same group are put in the same column. All observations contain the same number of modifier columns.

Event logs of the same observation are merged.

Observations are written as contiguous blocks above each other without empty rows in between.

The following columns are exported to both the Excel and text file:

Date/Time Columns

• Date_Time_Absolute_dmy_hmsf – the day, month, year, hour, minutes, seconds with three decimals.
• Date_dmy – the date (day - month - year) belonging to the absolute time.
• Time_Absolute_hms – the hours, minutes and seconds belonging to the absolute time.
• Time_Absolute_f – the decimals belonging to the seconds of the absolute time.
• Time_Relative_hmsf – the time since the start of the observation in hours, minutes, and seconds with decimals.
• Time_Relative_hms – the hours, minutes, and seconds belonging to the relative time.
• Time_Relative_f – the decimals of the seconds belonging to the relative time.
• Time_Relative_sf – the seconds with decimals belonging to the relative time.

Other Columns

• Duration_sf – the duration of the current state in seconds with decimals.
• Result Container – this column is only present if you exported the data selected with a Data Profile (Analyze > Select Data > Export Selected Data). It contains the name of the result container in the Data Profile.
• Observation – the observation name.
• Event_Log – the event log name.
• Coding scheme element columns (if scored) – behaviors, subjects or modifiers.
• Event_Type – State start, State stop, Point, Sample, Suspend, Resume.
• Comment – only present when comments were scored.
• Independent Variable.

Notes on Export of Event Data

• To export media files and external data together with observational data, choose ODX as export format. See Export Data to The Observer XT Data Files (*.odx).
• Default name – the suggested name of an exported text file with multiple observations consists of the [Project name] - [first selected observation name] - [last selected observation name] - "Event Logs".

Export Independent Variables

Two Export Files

Independent variables are exported in two files. One file contains the header with variable names and their properties. The other file contains the actual values of the variables for each combination of observation, event log and subject.

1. Choose File > Export > Independent Variables.
2. Browse to the folder where you want to store the variable list.
3. In the File base name field, enter a name. The file name will start with this name.
4. Select Unicode or ANSI from the Encoding list.
5. From the List separator list, select the column separator you require. By default, Windows default list separator is selected.
6. Click Save.

Structure of the Export File

The values file contains the values of all independent variables, including those you chose not to display in the Independent Variables List. See Show/Hide Variables in Set Up Your Project.

Each combination of observation, event log and subject is written in a row. Values of variables with Subject scope are written in those rows.

If a variable has Event log or Observation scope, it gets an additional row. Values of such variables are written in those rows.

All other cells are filled in with missing values (""). See also Variable Scope in Set Up Your Project.

Example: The project contains six observations, each with one event log. The independent variables include the user-defined variable Patients file and Observer with Observation scope. For Observation 1, the export file opened with Notepad contains the following:

• A – First line containing the variable names.
• B – A line specifying the event log. In this file there are no variables with Event Log scope, thus all values for this line are "". This line does not contain the subject names.
• C – A line specifying the observation. This line contains the values of the system variables, since those have Observation scope. It also contains the variable values of the user-defined values with Observation scope.

If the coding scheme also contained subjects, the export file would contain extra lines for each subject.

Export Episode Selections

Aim

To export the data selected in an Episode Selection.

Prerequisite

You created an Episode Selection.

Procedure

1. Choose what to export:
   • To export all episode selections at once, choose Analyze > Episode Selection > Export.
   • To export a single episode selection, click the Export Selected Data button on the toolbar.
2. Browse to the folder where you want to store the episode selections.
3. In the File base name field, enter a name. The export file name will start with this name.
4. Select whether you want the files to be exported as Unicode (UTF-16) (choose this if your export file contains Chinese, Japanese, or Cyrillic characters, or characters like "ä", "õ" etc.) or ANSI text files from the Encoding list.
5. Select the column separator you require from the List separator list. By default, Windows default list separator is selected.
6. Click Export.

Notes

• Default folder – by default, The Observer opens the Export folder of your project.
• If you have set roll-on and roll-off times, the samples within these intervals are also exported.
• Exporting multiple episode selections – the name of each text export file is: [Base filename]-[Episode Selection name] (#).txt.