In many tables, you will want to sort the data in different ways to get better insights or to highlight conclusions.
Let's use a table of random preference statements* by gender. Cross Table will display the data in the order that the answer choices were asked:
*Note this is a listed created from a number of different variables where respondents were asked to choose between two options e.g. "Beach holiday" vs. "City break".
Now we might want to see how women vs men rank there preference statements.
The final table would look like this ... notice how the Female column is sorted in descending order and that list of preferences have changed to match the new sorting.
Creating the Table
Select the table(s) you want to sort. And click on Options.
Scroll down to the “Sorting section” and specify the options to use.
Options available:
Sort column: Which column in the table should be sorted. Count from left to right starting with the first column as number 1. In our example we want the Female column which is the third column from the left.
Exclude: Should a number of rows from the bottom to be excluded from the sorting process. Specify the number of rows from the bottom of the original question to exclude from sorting. Normally this will apply to ‘don’t know’ and ‘other’ alternatives.
- If you use the Sort Maximum option to limit the number of rows, the excluded rows will be the number of rows to exclude from the rows shown.
Sorting value: If there are multiple values displayed in a cell choose the one to sort on.
Direction: The direction of the rolling to be performed, Ascending or Descending. We used Descending in our example.
Sort maximum: Specify the maximum number of rows tol be shown in the table. For example “Show me the top 10 brands”.
When finished don't forget to click the Set Option button at the bottom of the window to capture your selections!