Output file stores numeric values as strings (slider responses)

Online experiments
1

Hi all,

I was running an online experiment and during data collection I was constantly downloading the results (database mode) to check if everything was fine with the data. My experiment had also a slider component, so I was also calculating some descriptive statistics from the slider responses. Unfortunately, when I stopped recruiting participants and downloaded the results from the database, I realized that the slider responses were no longer considered (from Excel) as numeric values, but instead they were treated as strings, which means that I can’t do any kind of calculations. I’ve tried to convert them to a numeric format to no avail. So, I have some output files which treat slider responses as numeric values (the ones I downloaded during the data collection process) but the final output file which contains all my partiicipants, treats slider responses as strings. Anyone else who has run on a similar issue?

2

If you’ve already collected the data then one option is to copy and paste the data in that column to a text editor (I use PFE but Notepad should be fine). Then paste the data back to Excel in the new column. Sometimes (I’m not sure in this case) there’s an extra invisible character at the start of the number which makes it look like text.

Alternatively, an option within PsychoPy for future reference might be to add zero to the value, i.e. rating+0. That might force it to be seen as a number.

I can’t remember exactly what I’ve been doing when I’ve encountered this or what code was causing the issue.