[edited from support email]


On many of the items, a set of answer options are provided for selection. For the lowest frequency and for the highest frequency options the respondent is asked to specify the frequency, as follows….
1- Less than once a week <specify>
2- Once a week
3- Twice a week
4- Three times a week
5- Four or more times a week <specify>
In our test of the items, I noticed the data in the .csv and .sav files is documented so that the <specify> data is written over the keyed response rather than in as a separate variable. In this way if someone indicated "Less than once a week" the data would not appear as "1" but as whatever text was specified. I don't see this data as a separate variable in the .txt files. I don't see any syntax that addresses it as a separate variable.
I didn't find anything in the manual that addresses this issue.
Is it possible that I am overlooking something in the available data files that documents the keyed response separately from the <specify> response? Is there any way to retrieve the original keyed response? Is this problem unremediable in the written data but fixable in programming for future data collection?