Using PDQ Explore
PDQ-Explore is software that allows users to create and analyze queries across millions of records in seconds, and quickly refine and adjust those queries interactively. To use PDQ-Explore within the Population Studies Center, you will need to work on one of the public computers in the library. Double click the icon on the workstation desktop to launch the program.
Login as:
Account: PSC
Password: PSC
Click on the 'validate settings' button to activate the software. The first window that will open will prompt you to either open a new workspace or use an existing space. We have created three workspaces on the computers for the casual user. These workspaces are:
2000 - for use with 2000 census data
1990 - for use with 1990 census data
SSDAN - for use with a tutorial on using PDQ-Explore, based on 1990 data
These folders will be visible from the "open existing workspace" window. Click on the folder corresponding to the data that you wish to run queries on.
At this point you are ready to run simple tabulations or descriptive statistics, and print them out.
More information on getting started with PDQ:
- Power Point presentation from 2008 workshop
- Albert Anderson's handout on "Filling in the Blanks".
- Power Point presentation by UM Government Documents Librarian Grace York (from 2004)
PDQ Explore Guides
Overview - summarizes most of the "PDQ Notes" presented below
- Basic Query Window
- Saving Your Work
- Displaying Your Results in the Expert Query Window
- Universe Selection; Using Comparison Operators
- Cross-Tabulations; One- Two- or Three-way Tables
- Summary Statistics: Means, Standard Deviations and Ranges
- Quantiles and Medians
- Simple Recoding Using Arithmetic Operators
- Weighted Data
- Recoding with Custom Item Window
- Obtaining Correlations
- Extracting Data for Statistical Analysis
- Notes for Creating Complex Files with PDQ Explore
Practice Exercises
- Illustrations of using PDQ-Explore with ACS 2007 presented by Ren Farley
- Class exercises with set-ups [ACS 2007]
- Class exercises on your own [ACS 2007]
- Class exercises on your own (with the set-ups) [ACS 2007]
- Examples using the CPS presented by Ren Farley
- PDQ Software and Codebooks (File will need to be unzipped, then copied to C:\Program Files on desktop/laptop computer.)
PSC blog
Recent resources, events, news
New Publications
Bingenheimer & Geronimus, "Behavior & HIV"
Wildeman, "Imprisonment & Infant Mortality," PSC Research Report
Next Brown Bag
Tues, Dec 1
Arland Thornton & Barb Koremenos
Mobilizing for Human Rights
For live stream
LINK HERE
W A R N I N G
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