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Creating Data Comparison Views

While querying for data items can be useful for finding items that match particular criteria, the way the query results are displayed can make it difficult to compare items. The items are simply listed one per row such that you may need to scroll up and down to compare multiple items. The Comparison View functionality was created to allow researchers to more easily compare items by a particular attribute. The varying attribute values can be aligned side by side rather than in a single column.

To create a comparison view:

  1. Navigate to the Experiment Main Menu for the experiment you wish to compare data.

  2. Scroll down to the Data Entry and Retrieval section. Find the data type for which you want to compare items.

  3. Select the Create Comparison View link under the Actions column.

  4. The Create Comparison View Page should appear. You may enter constraints for any of the attributes to specify which items you want to compare. See Querying for Items to determine how different attribute types can be constrained.

  5. Currently, the radio button in the Invariable should all be selected. You must select EXACTLY ONE attribute in the Compare column. This is the attribute that will be compared between different items in the database. For example, in the screenshot above, the view was created using the Individual attribute as the "compare attribute". Notice how the Individual attribute value is placed in the appropriate cell according to the row and column values.

  6. You must select AT LEAST ONE (could be more) attribute in the Variable column. These attributes determine what the "Compare attribute" will be compared by and determine what make up the column header values. For example, in the screen shot above, the view was created using the Founder attribute as the "variable attribute". Notice how the available values for the Founder attribute are used as the header values for the columns in the table.



  7. You can also select the Omit radio button for any of the attributes if you do not want to display it in the view.

  8. Click the Submit button to create the comparison view. This feature can be confusing to use. If the view results are not what you expected, you can select Back in the browser and try different settings.