Hide/Unhide - Hide Questions with Many Categories

This tool will identify and hide questionsvariable sets that have a large number of categories. You may specify the number of categories that you wish to consider large. This can be helpful to prepare your data set for automatic report generation (for example creating banner tables, crosstabs, or summary tables) as it can help in avoiding the creation of tables that are too large and hence unhelpful to reporting.

The hidden questions can be automatically unhidden later by using Hide/Unhide - Unhide Questions with Many Categories.

Technical Details

QuestionsVariable sets which have both rows and columns are considered large when either the number of rows or columns exceeds the maximum specified value.

How to apply this QScript

Start typing the name of the QScript into the Search features and data box in the top right of the Q window.
Click on the QScript when it appears in the QScripts and Rules section of the search results.

OR

Select Automate > Browse Online Library.
Select this QScript from the list.

Customizing the QScript

This QScript is written in JavaScript and can be customized by copying and modifying the JavaScript.

Customizing QScripts in Q4.11 and more recent versions

Start typing the name of the QScript into the Search features and data box in the top right of the Q window.
Hover your mouse over the QScript when it appears in the QScripts and Rules section of the search results.
Press Edit a Copy (bottom-left corner of the preview).
Modify the JavaScript (see QScripts for more detail on this).
Either:
- Run the QScript, by pressing the blue triangle button.
- Save the QScript and run it at a later time, using Automate > Run QScript (Macro) from File.

Customizing QScripts in older versions

Copy the JavaScript shown on this page.
Create a new text file, giving it a file extension of .QScript. See here for more information about how to do this.
Modify the JavaScript (see QScripts for more detail on this).
Run the file using Automate > Run QScript (Macro) from File.

JavaScript

includeWeb("QScript Selection Functions");
includeWeb("QScript Data Reduction Functions");
includeWeb("QScript Functions to Generate Outputs");



hideQuestionsWithTooManyCategories();

function hideQuestionsWithTooManyCategories() {
    let is_displayr = inDisplayr(); 
    let data_files = project.dataFiles;
    if (data_files.length > 1) {
        if (is_displayr) {
            let user_selections = getAllUserSelections();
            data_files = user_selections.selected_data_sets;
            if (data_files.length == 0) {
                let selected_questions = user_selections.selected_questions;
                if (selected_questions.length == 0) {
                    log("Select data from the data set(s) you wish to modify.");
                    return;
                }
                data_files = selected_questions.map(q => q.dataFile);
                data_files = uniqueElementsInArray(data_files);
            }
        } else {
            data_files = dataFileSelection();    
        }    
    } else {
        data_files = project.dataFiles;
    }
    let hidden_tag = "Hidden - Large number of Categories";

    let max_categories = 20;
    max_categories = prompt("Specify the maximum number of categories to keep:", max_categories);

    let hidden_questions = [];
    let candidate_questions = getAllQuestionsByTypes(
        data_files, 
        ["Pick One", 
         "Pick One - Multi", 
         "Pick Any", 
         "Pick Any - Grid", 
         "Pick Any - Compact"]
    );
    candidate_questions = candidate_questions.filter(q => !q.isHidden);
    candidate_questions.forEach(function (q) {
        if (largestDimension(q) > max_categories) {
            q.isHidden = true;
            hidden_questions.push(q.name);
            q.name = `${q.name} ${hidden_tag}`;
        }
    });

    if (hidden_questions.length > 0) {
        if (is_displayr) {
            let displayr_message =
`${hidden_questions.length} variable set${(hidden_questions.length == 1 ? " was " : "s were ")} hidden.
To unhide them all, use Anything > Hide/Unhide > Unhide Data with Many Categories.`
            log(displayr_message);
            return;
        }
        let new_group = project.report.appendGroup();
        new_group.name = "Hidden Questions";
        let q_report_message = "The following questions have been hidden. To unhide them, select Automate > Browse Online Library > Hide/Unhide > Unhide Large Questions.";
        let report = simpleHTMLReport(
            [q_report_message].concat(hidden_questions), 
            "Hidden Questions", 
            new_group, 
            true, 
            false
        );
        return;
    }
    
    log(correctTerminology("No large questions to hide."));
}