What are the common methods used in data entry?

What will be an ideal response?

Software is increasingly used in data collection to simplify and streamline the process of data collection, entry, processing, and analysis. Data may be entered using computer-aided personal interviewing (CAPI) software in place of a paper questionnaire with face-to-face interviews, or a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) system with telephone interviews. Data may also be entered directly by respondents when using online survey software.

There are many statistical software packages used to directly enter data, including SAS, SPSS, SYSTAT, Minitab, Statview, Microstat, Stat-Pro, and JUMP. Data can also be entered into a spreadsheet package, such as Microsoft Excel, or a database management system such as Microsoft Access. This data can then be uploaded into SPSS or other statistical software for analysis.

The data entered must also be checked for accuracy through data cleaning, which consists of four steps: acquiring and reading, cleaning, combining data, and preparing data for analysis. Common methods include having another person reenter the data and using a verifier to check for errors, visually examining the data to see if all records have the same pattern and whether blank entries can be found, and using a computer to do the cleaning. When noncompatible entries are noted, the source document is consulted and the errors are then corrected. More complicated surveys may use consistency checking to examine whether responses to certain questions are logically related to responses to other questions.