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Overview

ipacheckscto is a Stata Module designed to check your SurveyCTO XLS form for common programming errors and best practices and outputs a list of issues and recommendations on the Stata result window with an option to export to an excel file. The SurveyCTO server and the desktop application already have built-in form validation tools that check XLS forms for syntax errors in forms. ipacheckscto compliments these tools by running additional test for the following:

• common programming errors
• IPA recommended practices

ipacheckscto should therefore be used only after the form validating the XLS form through the server or the desktop application.

NB: Not all issues flagged by ipacheckscto will require correction. Review the output carefully and decide if you need to make any changes to your form.

Software Requirements

ipacheckscto makes extensive use of Stata. Some parts of the program are also heavily dependent on Stata’s excel modules in order to create output files that are easy to use and disseminate. The excel modules are only available in Stata 14 or later and therefore requires that the user has Stata 14.0 or later installed on their machine prior to running ipacheckscto. IPA employees with older versions of Stata should contact IT for access to a newer version.

Installation

ipacheckscto is collated and distributed as a Stata package through github. You can install ipacheckscto directly from github by running the following line of code in your command line or by using a do-file:

net install ipacheckscto, all replace from("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PovertyAction/ipacheckscto/master/ado") 

ipacheckscto package file include the following files:

• ipacheckscto.ado – Stata program file
• ipacheckscto.sthlp – Stata helpfile
• ipacheckscto.dlg – Stata dialog file

Syntax