Simple selection

Create a simple selection¶

The simplest selection is just a selection of some codes in a single selector variable.

If you don't already have a blank selection window, click on the Selection icon in the Toolbox.

A blank selection window will appear in the FastStats' workspace. This empty selection can be counted, but will just return all the records in the database.

To add the variable to the selection, make sure that the System explorer tab is visible and selected on the left hand side of your screen.

This shows a list of all the variables that are present in your system. The icons to the left of the variable names show what type of variable each one is. The icon shown below denotes that a variable is a Selector variable. This type of variable presents the selectable items as a pre-defined pick-list.

To add a selector variable to the blank selection created above, drag and drop the variable onto the middle of the selection window. This will add the variable to the selection as below.

The variable has been added to the selection, but no codes have been selected, so this selection cannot yet be counted. To select which occupations should be included in the count, click the mouse in the tick box next to the categories that should be included. You will also notice that the names of the first couple of selected occupations will be added to the variable name at the top of the selection window.

This above image shows that the occupations of Director, Manager and Professional have been selected. The name of the selection can now be changed to make it clear that the selection will count all records selected.

To do this either change the text New Selection 1 at the top left of the selection window to Top Jobs:

Or click on the top most line of the selection tree and then once it is selected click on it again to bring up the edit text box and change the text.

To count the records, press the Build button at the top left of the selection window.

This will process the records and return the number that have the selected occupations. The count is displayed in the box at the bottom right of the selection window.