Specifies the column position where the response-string begins in your data file record, or the column where the response-string begins in the new record formatted by FORMAT=.
If you have the choice, put the person-identifiers first in each record, and then the item responses with each response taking one column.
For comma-separated or tab-separated data files, count the columns in the same way as Excel.
Error messages regarding ITEM1= may be because your control file is not in "Text with line breaks" format.
It is easy to miscount the ITEM1= column. Scroll to the top of the Winsteps screen and check column positions:
Input in process..
Input Data Record:
1 2
1234567890123456789012345678
Richard M 111111100000000000
^P ^I ^N
35 KID Records Input.
^P marks the Name1=1 column position with ^.
^I marks the Item1=11 column position with ^.
^N marks the NI=18 column position with ^.
Example 1: The string of 56 items is contained in columns 20 to 75 of your data file.
ITEM1=20 response to item 1 in column 20
NI=56 for 56 items
XWIDE=1 one column wide (the standard)
Example 2: The string of 100 items is contained in columns 30 to 69 of the first record, 11 to 70 of the second record, followed by 10 character person i.d.
XWIDE=1 one column wide (the standard)
FORMAT=(T30,40A,/,T11,60A,10A) two records per person
ITEM1=1 item 1 in column 1 of reformatted record
NI=100 for 100 items
NAME1=101 person id starts in column 101
NAMLEN=10 person id starts in 10 columns wide
Example 3: Comma-separated data:
DELIMITER = ","
ITEM1=2 ; first item in seccond CSV column
NI=56 for 56 items
XWIDE=1 one column wide (the standard)
CODES=12345 valid codes in data
......
END LABELS
first name,3,2,5,
