1.3 The Command area

The command area is a central part of the user interface, where commands may be entered for execution. This includes importing/retrieving variables, creating descriptive variable statistics, commands for processing and encoding variables, administrative help commands (help, history, clear etc) or analysis. See Appendix A for a complete list of available commands.

The microdata.no analysis system has a built-in self-filling solution that suggests relevant commands based on what is typed. In most cases, it is sufficient to enter a few characters before the system is able to suggest the desired command. By pressing the TAB-key on the keyboard, the command is inserted correctly.

Most commands assume that additional information is entered, and self-filling also works in such contexts. The command import needs additional information on variable name and measurement time in order to be executed. If you want to import the variable kjønn (gender), you can start by entering the letter "k". This will result in a list of all variables with the letter "k" in the name - in practice there will be many to choose from. When typing the next letter "j", the system will list all variable names containing the combination "kj". After entering "ø", the letter combination will be sufficiently unique for the system to reduce the number of alternatives into a few, and the user can select the correct variable with the arrow keys on the keyboard and then use the TAB-key. Following the variable selection, a measurement date need to be specified given that the variable does not contain fixed information such as "gender". The default value for the system is the last used date. If this is ok, use the TAB-key. If not, enter an optional new date instead. The system will also suggest relevant options at the end. Forimport, the option as as may be used. This may be used to create an alias for the particular variable. The register variables in the database often have inconvenient and long names that may be renamed using the as- option for more understandable/readable analysis and statistics outputs/prints.