Sequences
Key Considerations
Sequences must have a clear start and end.
Sequences must contain at least one construct.
The first sequence to add is the 'wrapper'. This holds all the other constructs and is labelled with the instrument prefix.
Sequences are a type of construct used to group other constructs together and give the questionnaire structure. The sequence is a container for the Question constructs, Conditions, Statements and Loops. They are mostly section headings, but may also be used to designate sub-sections. Sequences consist of a Label field, which contains the text or name of the Sequence.
The most common use of a sequence is to indicate a section of a questionnaire. For example, an instrument might have Sections A and B with questions within them. Section A and Section B would each become a sequence. A top sequence is always created first, which contains all the questionnaire content and is labelled the questionnaire prefix (see Example 1). An additional use of sequences is when a question has several sub-questions, and it cannot be entered as a question grid. In this case, the overarching question text becomes a sequence, and the sub-questions sit within it (see Example 3).
A sequence must always contain a construct. It usually has a number of constructs, especially question constructs. However, there are rare instances where a sequence only contains statements. See Example 4 below.
There are occasions when a sequence is repeated in a questionnaire. However, Archivist does not allow you to use the same label for two constructs, and therefore it is not possible to have two sequences with the same name. To get around this, the label must be suffixed with the unique identifier “duplicate #” to distinguish between them. The exact wording "duplicate #" is used in order to programmatically remove this suffix before it is added to CLOSER Discovery. This is also true for corner labels in Question Grids (see Example 5 below).
Example 1
Questionnaire: ALSPAC Food and Things
Archivist view (alspac_04_fat):
Example 2
Questionnaire: ALSPAC Food and Things
Questionnaire layout:
Archivist construct build view (alspac_04_fat):
Archivist view (alspac_04_fat):
Example 3
Questionnaire: ALSPAC My Teenage Son
Questionnaire layout:
Archivist view (alspac_04_mtsd):
Example 4
Questionnaire: NCDS Parental questionnaire 1974
Questionnaire layout:
Archivist view (ncds_74_pq):
Example 5
Questionnaire: NCDS COVID Questionnaire 2
Questionnaire layout:
Archivist view (ncds_covid_q2):