VII. Example Using the NLSY97

This example demonstrates how to combine area of interest and survey year to find the highest grade and degree completed as of 2006. If you choose to follow along with this example, make sure you select the NLSY97 survey.

Step 1: Search by area of interest

Under the Variable Search tab, select the search category as "Area of Interest" and then select "equals" in the second drop-down box. Clicking on the third drop-down arrow in the search menu, we can see all of the areas of interest in the NLSY97.

Choose "ED STATUS & ATTAINMENT (4442)". The number 4,442 in the parenthesis indicates that there are 4442 variables in this area.

Picking this item leads us to the following screen:

Step 2: Add a second search criterion, survey year

Click "Add" at the right of the search menu bar. Another row of the search menu bar appears and allows us to enter a second search criterion. Choose "Survey Year", then "equals" and then "2006."

Above the search menu bars, on the right, the drop-down allows you to decide how you want the two search criteria to interact with each other -- "AND" or "OR." For this example, make sure "AND" (the default) is selected. Adding the survey year search criteria now shrinks our variable list to 312 records.

Step 3: Click on "Get Results"

The screen now displays a list of variables with their RNUM, question name, variable title, area of interest, and survey year, as shown below.

By default, the list includes only the primary variables (as indicated by "Show primary only" above the variable list), thus 182 of 312 total variables are listed.

Step 4: Select (Tag) Variables of Interest

For this example, we’ll pick four created variables showing the highest grade completed and highest degree received. Click the check boxes next to S75135.00, S75136.00, S75142.00, and S75143.00. These four variables should now be checked and highlighted as shown in the screen below. (Note: We recommend that you always review the actual codebook page for each variable to verify that it does present the desired data.)

Step 5: Review Selected Variables

Move to the Review Selected Variables tab to look at your tagset and make sure you have tagged all of the variables you are interested in. For this example, your list should include ten variables: six preselected ID and demographic variables and the four education variables we tagged in step 4.

Step 6: Use the selected variables to generate a frequency distribution

Now we will generate the frequency distribution of NLSY97 respondents’ highest grade completed prior to the start of the 2006/2007 academic year. Move to the Save/Download tab and pick the Advanced Download sub-tab. Choose the "Create Frequency/Table" button.

Click on the drop-down arrow at the right of the variable row as shown below to select the variable S75136.00 from the drop-down list.

Then click on the "Start Download" button. A new window will open to show the status of the creation of the table. When the table is ready, click on the link in that new window and the frequency table will open in another new window. The frequency table for S75136.00 should look like this:

Step 7: Use "Apply Universe Restrictors" to download the ten selected variables, restricting the data to only the cross-sectional sample of the NLSY97 (R12358.00=1).

As shown below, under the Advanced Download tab, click to put a check in the "Apply Universe Restrictors" box.

Next click on "Show Equation Editor."

Select R12358.00, =, 1 (as shown on the screen below) and click on "Add expression to the above equation" to enter the restriction.

Now click on "Start Download" to create your extract. The downloaded dataset will include only 6,748 observations, the number in the cross-sectional sample, out of the total of 8,984 observations from the full NLSY97 sample.